Any medication that has to be delivered intramuscularly typically requires a needle and skillful healthcare personnel to administer it. However, that might change soon as a new autonomous robot developed by Cobionix, is ready to take on the responsibility. The company was founded at the University of Waterloo.
The autonomous robot uses the company’s Cobi platform to perform injections without using needles. Cobi is a versatile robotic platform that can be deployed rapidly and complete tasks without any external help.
Needle-free injection solution
The robot comes equipped with a needle-free injection system. It showcased its ability to deliver intramuscular injections to patients without requiring needles and without any supervision. The robot creators believe that Cobi can help protect healthcare workers, reduce cost, and help improve patient outcomes.
The team behind the robot believes that the autonomous design of the robot will significantly reduce the requirements for vaccine clinics and could help deliver vaccines to remote areas that have limited access to healthcare centers.
Apart from delivering injections without needles, the system can perform several other tasks without supervision. The team says that initially, they are targeting healthcare applications as well as hospitality. The reason for targeting those industries is the shortage of labor.
Could be helpful in COVID vaccinations
Another potential use of the robot and its injection system is to deliver COVID vaccinations. In this case, the patient would show their ID card to the camera on the touchscreen fitted on the robot. Integrated 3D depth sensors would detect the patient’s presence, and after the ID is verified, a robotic arm will retrieve a vaccine file from a storage area.
The robot’s arm will have a lidar sensor that can create a 3D digital map of the patient’s body and use its AI software to figure out the best site for delivering the injection. The needle-free injection tech is third-party equipment and uses a high-pressure jet of fluid able to pass through a hole as wide as human air.
