China News Service, Shanghai, January 17 (Reporter Xu Jing and Xu Yin) Qi Peng team of Tongji University applied the world's leading 3D human body model recognition algorithm and adaptive robot technology, combined with the design of mechatronics needle-free syringe, and joined a number of technology companies Together with the China Cardiovascular Innovation Club (CCI), a fully automatic needle-free vaccine injection robot has been jointly developed.
On the 17th, the fully automatic needle-free vaccine injection robot was officially released, which is also the first time that this complete technical verification scheme has been released in China.
The automatic vaccine injection robot can automatically identify the designated vaccine injection position on the human body, such as the commonly used part of the deltoid muscle of the upper limb of the human body.
At present, the 3D model recognition algorithm of the human body can quickly and automatically fit the 3D model of the corresponding parts of the human body (such as shoulder and elbow) through a simple 3D point cloud camera to take pictures of the human body (either in a standing or sitting position), and accurately identify Vaccine injection site and injection angle.
Compared with needle-based injection, the needle-free syringe has outstanding advantages in terms of safety in use, eliminating the fear of needles and the risk of needle scratching.
Photo courtesy of Tongji University
The seven-axis force-controlled adaptive robotic arm used by the robot has high-precision and fast-response force control performance. The application of high-precision force-controlled fitting algorithm can ensure that the end of the syringe is vertically and closely attached to the injection site, improving the injection effect and reducing the pain experience. ; At the same time, the robotic arm precisely controls the contact force and pressing force during the contact with the skin and the injection process, which can ensure the safety of the injection process.
Needle-free injection uses the instantaneous pressure generated by the pressure source to push the drug through a very fine nozzle to form a jet that penetrates the skin at high speed and directly enters the treatment site.
The liquid medicine is prefilled or sucked into a container with a very fine nozzle, which can be called a medicine tube.
The drug tube is sterile for single use and is discarded after the liquid injection to ensure safe use.
For the hospital application scenario of vaccine injection, the current robot injection system adopts pneumatic drive technology, which has the advantage of being suitable for rapid continuous injection.
The liquid injection can be completed within half a second, ensuring the injection efficiency during the peak period of vaccine injection.
In addition, the injection accuracy can be accurate to 0.01mL, which can be applied to the injection dose requirements of different vaccines; there is also an injection depth adjustment function, which can be applied to different types of vaccines injected subcutaneously or intramuscularly, or can meet the injection needs of different groups of people.
According to reports, the needle-free syringe has outstanding advantages in terms of safety compared with needle-based injection, eliminating the fear of needles and the risk of needle scratching, mainly because the principle of needle-free injection is to first press the drug tube on the pre-injection site. The patient does not have any pain or discomfort, and the injection is started after the injection conditions are sufficient, and the drug solution is injected subcutaneously in an instant.
If the injection does not start if the patient moves before the injection, this injection process is ideal for robotic automation.
The closer the syringe head is to the skin surface and the more vertical the contact angle, the better the injection effect and the less pain (almost no pain can be achieved).
At the same time, because the surface of the human body has a certain degree of flexibility and the shape of the human body is different, the use of a robot to achieve a needle-free injection with a close fit and a vertical contact angle has high requirements for the robot's control ability.
A fully automatic needle-free vaccine injection robot was released in Shanghai on the 17th.
Photo courtesy of Tongji University
After obtaining the spatial pose information of the vaccine injection site, an adaptive robotic arm is used in this project to hold the needle-free syringe near the injection site, and a precise force control algorithm is applied to ensure that the syringe closely fits the human skin and is in contact with the surface of the human skin. Vertical, effectively solve the difficulty of the uncertainty of the human body surface.
During the injection process, the robotic arm can control the syringe to maintain a certain pressing force on the surface of the human skin to ensure successful injection.
Vaccine injection can be done quickly and painlessly by using a combination of adaptive force-controlled robotic arms and needle-free injectors.
The birth of the robot can liberate the hands of medical staff, make the repetitive injection work no longer a burden on them, and spend energy and time in more difficult and manpower-demanding places to improve their work efficiency and quality. Help more patients.
The research team believes that it is not difficult to foresee that with the popularization of large-scale new crown vaccine booster injections, robots combined with the current mobile vaccination vehicles, one vehicle, one driver and one robot, can provide convenient vaccination services across the city to avoid cross infection. risk, and truly realize one-stop unmanned vaccine injection.
In other fields, autonomous intelligent needle-free vaccine injection robots can effectively prevent virus cross-infection. In the event of militarization or force majeure emergency natural disasters, it can greatly save prime time and completely replace the workload of humans with high negative pressure. Implement "steady, accurate and precise".
With the development of active health and epidemic prevention at any time, needle-free injection will greatly reduce the workload of medical staff and improve the efficiency and effect of vaccine injection. Combined with automated equipment and robotic technology, it will help to efficiently complete the needle-free injection process. Needle-free vaccine injection methods Complementary with robotics.
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