Robots, drones, AI and big data bring modern touch to disease control

Nonhuman deliveries

In addition to robots in hospitals, the e-commerce giant JD is deploying self-driving robots to deliver items to medical workers in Wuhan in a bid to protect both customers and employees.

The robots can easily cover the distance between the logistics point and a designated hospital, about 600 meters, according to the Shanghai Observer news portal.

Meanwhile, in some parts of the country, drones are being used to patrol open places, spray disinfectant and conduct thermal-imaging procedures.

Liu Shuai, a farmer in Mianzhu, Sichuan province, allowed the local village authorities to use a newly purchased agricultural drone to spray disinfectant.

"Drones are more convenient, and they can spray material more evenly than manual or electric devices," he told Red Star News.

He volunteered to operate the drone and spray roads in his village at 9 am every morning. The work used to take a team a whole day to finish, but Liu completes the task in about three hours.

Meanwhile, a community official in Yichun, Jiangxi province, started a trend of using drones equipped with thermal-imaging technology to assess body temperatures, according to news portal Jiemian.

Yi Jinyu, who enjoys working with new technologies such as drones, 3D printing and data visualization, bought the device from DJI, a leading provider of easy-to-fly drones.

During its 30 minutes of flight time per charge, the drone can detect temperatures ranging from -10 C to 140 C, thereby meeting all the demands for widespread inspections of people and goods in open spaces.

In January, Yi came up with the idea of deploying drones to assess temperatures.

After he started using the drone to gauge temperatures, many other communities quickly decided to follow suit.

On Feb 2, a community in Hangzhou started using the devices to conduct temperature checks in open spaces, such as parks.

If an individual registers a temperature reading that may indicate a fever, he or she is located by officials who conduct tests to ascertain the details of the situation and respond accordingly.