The second generation of "Pengcheng Qinggeng" - the world's first full-process automated nasopharyngeal swab sampling robot was unveiled in the yellow code area of Shenzhen Luohu Hospital Group in June. This high-performance mobile collaborative robot product is led by Shenzhen Luohu Hospital Group (Luoyi), Shenzhen Moying Technology Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (AIRS) and jointly developed it. The R&D team is headed by Dr. Luo Yi Sun Xizhuo, Dr. Qin Jinzhou is the chief executive of medical demonstration, Dr. Yang Yiming is responsible for the automation integration of robots and core hardware, and Dr. Zhang Tianwei of Airs is responsible for core algorithms.
According to Moying Technology, the second generation of "Pengcheng Qinggeng" robot is the world's first full-process automated nasopharyngeal swab sampling robot, the main body is a mobile collaborative robot, compared with the single-arm robot "Pengcheng Qinggeng" launched last year with a fixed base, it has the upper body (head and arms) of a humanoid robot, a car body that can move freely and omnidirectionally (a**) and a tablet computer that integrates code scanning, voice and **interaction. The car body has built-in sampling tubes, swabs, sterile sample reserve devices, sanitizing and sterilization devices and other consumables.
In terms of working principle, the robot uses advanced laser SLAM technology to store the environment map in advance, and moves to any user-specified sampling location through the most advanced path planning technology. Before the sampling starts, the robot arms work together to operate the opening and closing of the sampling tube, the scanning code, and the grasping and calibration of the nasopharyngeal swab. After the user is in place, the health code and other identity information are scanned through the tablet interactive interface, and the robot automatically binds the sampling tube and identity information and uploads it to the public health inspection platform. Then, the robot uses 3D vision and six-dimensional force control technology to safely, accurately and quickly sample the nasopharyngeal swab nucleic acid on the user, and then automatically cut the swab and sanitize key components such as sampling tubes, grippers, and bodies, and then move to the next sampling point to continue the sampling task.
Moying Technology also said that on the basis of the previous generation, the second-generation machine of "Pengcheng Qinggeng" has developed a more accurate and stable 3D vision algorithm, optimized the algorithm model of face recognition, and realized real-time head pose estimation and accurate positioning algorithm of face features. During the movement of the robotic arm, the robot can imitate the sampling action of the senior ** for sampling.
As of June 14, 2022, 634 preclinical volunteer tests have been completed: the success rate of one-time sampling is 85%, and the success rate of secondary sampling is over 92%; 82% of the subjects collected by the robot were similar to or better than the human collection. There were no serious adverse reactions, and other minor or general adverse reactions were similar to those of manual sampling; The comprehensive score of machine sampling experience is 67 points, and the comprehensive score of manual sampling experience is 58 points, the machine sampling experience is generally better than manual sampling (9 points for comfort, 6 points for general and small differences, 4 points for discomfort and discomfort than artificial, and 2 points for very uncomfortable). The sampling comfort of the robot was significantly higher than that of the manually operated nasal swab sampling, and the sample size collected by the robot was verified by the inspection center to be similar to that of the manual collection of senior medical staff (there was no significant difference in the CT value of the internal standard gene), which reached the high-precision detection standard.
In terms of safety, the second-generation machine is equipped with a number of safety control systems, and a robot virtual frame scheme is used to facilitate the subject to effectively avoid the current discomfort of the collection; Control the running speed of the robotic arm to ensure that the subject can have enough reaction time to deal with various emergencies during operation; The front end of the sampling robotic arm is also equipped with a high-precision six-dimensional force sensor, which ensures that the swab operated by the robot will not cause damage to the posterior wall of the nasopharynx while the sample is collected, and the accident rate of robot sampling in 634 test populations is 0.
Finally, similar to the safety methods of all collaborative robots, the second-generation body of "Pengcheng Qinggeng" is equipped with emergency buttons on all sides, and the subjects can stop the power supply system of the robotic arm in an emergency; At the same time, the entire A** is designed with a lower end bumper that can terminate operation before a collision occurs while moving.
At the same time, according to Sun Xizhuo, President of Shenzhen Luohu Hospital Group, the second-generation machine of Pengcheng Qinggeng is compatible with the cooperation team's existing automatic oropharyngeal swab collection solution, realizing the single-machine dual-collection mode compatible with nasopharyngeal swab and oropharyngeal swab, and realizing the rapid switching and application of different scenarios of key populations and low-risk populations; Create conditions for citizens to queue less, so that nucleic acid testing is more efficient and convenient. At the same time, "Pengcheng Qinggeng" will continue to expand the scope of clinical application in the fields of examination and inspection of tissues and organs of the respiratory tract, bronchi, digestive tract and cardiovascular tract, and auxiliary diagnosis.
AIRS-related achievements "Design and Implementation of a Novel and Intrinsically Safe Rigid-Flex Coupled Manipulator for COVID-19 Oropharyngeal Swab Sampling"."design and control of a highly redundant rigid-flexible coupling robot to assist the covid-19 oropharyngeal-swab sampling,"Published in RAL-2021 and reported by IEEE Spectrum.