A new robot can perform nasal swab tests by autonomously navigating and collecting the patient’s samples, thus helping to reduce staff-patient contact with highly infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, at the point of testing and making it ideal for large scale testing.

The Nasal Swab Robot from Brain Navi Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (Taiwan) is intended to be used for collecting samples of secretions from the uppermost part of the throat, and behind the nose in suspected cases of whooping cough, diphtheria, influenza, and various types of diseases caused by the coronavirus family of viruses, including SARS, MERS, and COVID-19. The Nasal Swab Robot uses some fundamental functions of the innovative “autopilot brain surgery navigation robot” developed by Brain Navi. Its procedure is based on three-dimensional imaging with facial and nasal characteristics to move through nostrils, twirl the swab, remove it and place it in a vial.

The Nasal Swab Robot uses AI facial structure recognition to automatically recognize the patient's facial structure and the nostril's location independently and gently take the samples to avoid close contact with patients. Its autonomous nasal sample collector uses robotic technology for high precision positioning and recognition of the nostril’s position by measuring the length from the nose to the ear, which is the correct length of the nasopharynx pathway. The robot remains safely in the nasopharynx for at least 10 seconds to check the complete secretion.

The Nasal Swab Robot allows users to test safely around the clock and protects medical health care workers from the high-risk environment during sample collection. It can shorten the testing time to a maximum of five minutes and saves at least 15 minutes during the swabbing procedure as compared to human procedure. It is intuitive to use, so that the staff has a minimal learning curve to perform tests safely. With its unique robotic help, users can control the spread of the novel coronavirus until there is a vaccine and prevent cross-infections.

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