Cobots Revolutionising the Healthcare Sector
Published on : Saturday 13-06-2020
How human robot collaboration paves the way ahead for Indian healthcare sector.
India’s healthcare sector is one that is growing at a tremendous pace, and according to a report of India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), it is expected to reach USD 372 million by 2022. With this comes a new wave of opportunities, especially to strengthen the sector with the very latest technologies of Industry 4.0 to transform the country’s healthcare industry to compete on a global scale. One such technology that is slowly making its way into this traditionally non-automated environment is that of collaborative robots, or cobots. From pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing to actual hospital rooms, the entire medical industry is slowly but surely coming to use the versatility and ease of use of cobots in a range of innovative applications.
In essence, cobots are advanced robotic arms that were created to safely share the same physical environment as humans. This is a radical shift from traditional robots, which are heavier, cumbersome, and have the potential to harm humans. This means that – subject to risk assessment – cobots are the perfect solution to safely assist doctors and medical practitioners in operating rooms and for other applications in the medical industry, all while increasing accuracy and precision. For example, in developed countries such as Canada and the USA, cobots are used in Robotic Assisted Surgery, mounted with cameras to help doctors identify tumours to remove.
Surgery might be one of the most evident sectors that robotics is catering to, but the versatility of cobots makes them suitable for an array of other applications in the healthcare industry. A prime example is of Madurai-based non-profit organisation Aurolab (a unit of Arvind Eye Care Systems). It has deployed eight cobots from Danish pioneer, Universal Robots, to help in Aurolab’s vision to eliminate blindness. The NGO used to first import Intraocular Lenses (IOLs), a vital component in vision restoration, at exorbitant prices, which drove up the prices of their cataract kits. Having the vision to empower women, Aurolab has a largely female staff of high school graduates. Therefore, the NGO was looking for a solution that would not only help them decrease costs and increase their manufacturing capabilities but was also safe and easy to use even for those with no prior robot programming experience. This is when they turned to cobots, which now handle the manufacturing of the lenses. Today, with the help of cobots, Aurolab increased the production of IOLs from 150 to 10,000 IOLs per day, and the superior quality has even enabled the NGO to export their lenses to over 130 countries. Additionally, this massive increase in production even led to the organisation growing from a staff of 15 to 700, setting a glowing example for the healthcare sector in India. Packaging in the pharmaceutical sector is also another application where cobots are increasingly considered, as they enable suppliers to meet high demands while also meeting sanitation standards.
Looking at the battle against the highly contagious Covid-19 virus, an issue that the entire world is facing today, one can notice that many in the healthcare industry are already turning to robots to the rescue. Nanyang Technological University in Singapore created a ‘Disinfectant Robot’, in which a cobot is mounted on wheels and has a specialised nozzle to ensure that disinfectant can be
sprayed on large surfaces and even hard-to-reach places. As it moves semi-autonomously and can be controlled remotely with a laptop, thereby eliminating the risk of cleaners picking up the virus from contaminated areas. Meanwhile, researchers at a top Chinese educational institute, Tsinghua University, got the idea to use cobot arms to test and treat coronavirus patients remotely to prevent doctors and nurses from getting infected themselves – a major concern for healthcare workers across the globe. While the technology is still undergoing trials, the hope is that the cobots make for a cost-effective yet technologically advanced solution that can help combat this global epidemic.
Cobots encourage interdependence between humans and robots, allowing each of them to do what they are good at, but in a safe environment and with utmost precision. The utilisation of this unique technology is gaining momentum every day and is already seen catching traction internationally. However, when it comes to exploring cobots’ potential in the healthcare industry, India still seems to be in its infancy stage. In tough times like these, robotics automation will prove to be a boon resulting in efficiency and scalability for every industry including healthcare. By enabling Human Robot Collaboration – a key tenet of Industry 4.0 – cobots are definitely of use to fight a pandemic of this proportion, but also will be indispensable in the future as the economy marches towards using cobots to take over dull, repetitive, or dangerous tasks, while humans are used for tasks that require mental efforts and human ingenuity. The potential of cobot technology will help the country in revolutionising the sector, making it future-forward while securing the present and safeguarding the future of the citizens.
