Self-Disinfecting Robots for Hospital Use

Abstract

The implementation of social robots is rapidly evolving in various industries. With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, several countries relied on robots to decrease the risk of virus transmission from human-human contact. While healthcare robots have a key role to play in this domain, it is important to identify the needs of and collect feedback from patients and healthcare workers before designing and implementing such robots in hospitals. In this thesis, the design of a self-disinfecting social robot is introduced based on the human-centered design (HCD) process in order to ensure its acceptance by various stakeholders. The robot is designed to assist medical staff in a limited number of their tasks, which do not necessarily require human intervention. Before designing the robot, interviews with end users are conducted to specify their needs. The physical appearance and functionality of the robot are implemented depending on the results of these interviews. After designing the robot, a second round of interviews is done to validate the design with end users and conclude what future improvements to include. The aim of the robot is to limit the risk of virus transmission to immunocompromised (and from highly contagious) patients by featuring a self-disinfection system that activates upon entry/exit of an isolation room. The findings from the interviews of the second phase show that there is a positive attitude toward the designed robot, the disinfecting system is appreciated, and the robot’s operation should be semi-autonomous. Minor changes must be made to the design, which includes reducing the shoulders’ width and redesigning the body using plastic material to make it look less basic. Preliminary results are obtained on the effect of giving a Lebanese identity to the robot, which boosts its acceptance by Lebanese patients.