With new vaccines and treatments being developed to combat the deadly Ebola virus, the idea of using robotics to end this health crisis is becoming more popular.
A meeting will take place on Nov. 7th among robotics experts to see how autonomous machines can help fight the virus, according to The Atlantic. A series of brainstorming series will begin on this day and will be held at the University of California, Berkeley, Texas A&M University, the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Massachusetts, and in Washington. These sessions will involve participation from academic researchers, commercial roboticists, healthcare workers, relief workers, and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Robots have the potential to help treat Ebola in various ways, such as delivering food and medicine to patients, acting as interpreters between patients and doctors, and giving interactive checklists to doctors while they put on and take off safety equipment.
Other possible uses for robots include decontaminating areas that have traces of Ebola and burying those who have died from the virus, The Boston Herald reported.
"If we can minimize the contact, we can minimize the risk," said Taskin Padir, a robotics professor at WPI.
Robin Murphy, a professor of computer science and engineering at Texas A&M, said the goal of the meetings is to hear what researchers have to propose to combat Ebola, The Atlantic reported.
"They'll talk about what they need and then we can talk about what we can offer ... What can we do in the next few months and then what do we need to do in the longer term? What should we have five years from now?"
Massachusetts is already prepared for an outbreak with MAVEN (Massachusetts Virtual Epidemiologic Network), a detection tool that can track and provide real-time alerts for suspected and confirmed cases of the virus, The Boston Herald reported. The state gets automatic alerts for Ebola and other diseases, and MAVEN notifies local health departments and other relevant personnel about the case.
