The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 15% of patients in low and middle-income nations contract at least one healthcare-associated infection (HAI) during their hospitalization. On average, 1 out of 10 affected patients succumbs to their HAI. The ongoing interest in robots for disinfection and social distancing spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic suggests that robots could aid overburdened hospital staff in diagnosing patients while curtailing the spread of pathogens. Now, a first-of-its-kind robot with haptic perception features electronic skin that can give remote clinicians a sense of touch, helping reduce the spread of HAI.

Touchlab Limited (Scotland, UK) has designed a robot named Välkky which is equipped with the company's cutting-edge e-skin technology that enables it to 'feel'. The electronic skin or "e-skin" can enhance a robot's ability to sense the environment, improves dexterous grasping and teleoperated manipulation, and prepares them for widespread adoption. Touchlab has created low-profile tactile sensors, thinner than human skin, that can be applied to both hard and soft robots. The company's e-skin consists of one or more ultra-thin force sensors transmitting sensations like pressure, vibration, or movement from a robot to a user in real time. The company has employed quantum tunneling to make the e-skin biomimetic - sensing pressure and its location, not just force, thereby enabling the robot to perform tasks like rolling pens, feeling textures, and experiencing pain as a human would.

Touchlab's patented Triaxial technology is capable of sensing the full 3D force vector - normal and shear forces - at the point of contact. Triaxial, the so-called 'holy grail' of e-skin, performs with high precision, resilience, and an unmatched dynamic range like no other sensor. Using the company's deep learning and analytics software add-on makes it possible to identify objects solely through touch and predict and compensate for slips before they occur, facilitating real-time closed-loop operation of robotic grippers in different settings. Operators can utilize a wearable haptic glove to control Välkky, which can perform tasks like serving meals, moving assistive devices, or assisting with a patient's grooming.

The Välkky system is currently under trial at a hospital in Finland. Over a three-month pilot, a team of trained nurses will investigate how robots can assist in providing care, easing workloads, and preventing the spread of infectious diseases. Initially, Välkky will be deployed on a smaller scale, performing tasks like picking up dropped items or monitoring patient vitals, but it holds potential for more complex tasks, such as lifting patients to prevent physical injuries to staff and reducing the spread of infection.

“In the past, telerobots have been limited to being able to see, hear, and speak on behalf of the people using them,” said Dr. Zaki Hussein, CEO of Touchlab. “Now, thanks to our innovative e-skin technology, robots like Välkky can ‘feel’ too—and not only on their fingertips.” 

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