Paper Info
Title
Design and Implementation of a Novel, Intrinsically Safe Rigid-Flexible Coupling Manipulator for COVID-19 Oropharyngeal Swab Sampling
Abstract
Driven by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, demand for oropharyngeal swab sampling (OP-swabs) is surging. However, medical staff can easily become infected by the virus during the sampling process. In an effort to combat this, we developed a novel, intrinsically safe rigid-flexible coupling (RFC) manipulator to improve the safety and reliability of OP-swab sampling to test for COVID-19, which is presented herein. Suitable sampling areas and the necessary contact force for OP-swab sampling tasks are carefully investigated, and three typical sampling paths outlined that could be performed by a robotic system. This is followed by a detailed description of an intrinsically safe bionic micro-pneumatic actuator (MPA) that was designed and fabricated as the main component of the RFC manipulator. The developed RFC manipulator's kinematic modeling, motion planning, and force control capacities were designed for OP-swab sampling scenarios. The system was then validated using both an oral cavity phantom and human volunteers, with comparative experiments on the swab quality of the OP-swab sampling approach conducted in both robotic and manual modes. The results indicate that fully-automated sampling based on this design would be feasible.
Year
DOI
Venue
2021
10.1109/ICRA48506.2021.9561470
2021 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION (ICRA 2021)
DocType
ISSN
Citations 
Conference
1050-4729
0
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.34
0
8
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Heng Zhang100.34
Qiwen Wang200.68
Chuliang Chi300.34
Yongquan Chen412.10
Mu Zonggao5197.41
Zheng Li68330.38
Yuanmin Lan700.34
Aidong Zhang82970405.63