Design of an ultrasound based robotic system for assistance to the paraplegic and sickly

Abstract

While trying to assist the paraplegic and sickly, healthcare personnel encounter challenges in lifting them up, which result in some suffering from disabling back injuries. Furthermore, the introduction of health 4.0 has shown that application of Artificial Intelligence, robotics, and automated systems is the future. Therefore, to achieve sustainability, and improve the quality of life for both healthcare professionals and patients, innovative research in these fields is crucial. Thus, researchers propose the design of an ultrasound-based assistance robot to help carry the paraplegic and sickly. Its objectives being able to: carry the sickly and paraplegic to and from platforms, including moving with them up or down stairs. Inventor and blender have been used to model and simulate the proposed systems, respectively. Pulse-echo principle and Newtonian mechanics principles were used to develop the scientific model of the assistance robot.  Results showed that for a robot to safely lift a patient weighing 100kg to a height of 1.1m above the ground a power of 107.91W is required and the maximum velocity it can reach is 0.15ms-1. Simulation results showed that, the robot will run smoothly without failure. It was recommended to sanitize the robot after it carries each person. Future studies on the design of assistance robots that are fully autonomous has been proposed. Overall, this research focused on how industrial delivery robotic systems can be adapted in healthcare to help achieve sustainability in healthcare, improve safety of the paraplegic and sickly, and reduce risks of endangering lives of healthcare professionals.