IO, Surabaya – The trauma of the COVID-19 Pandemic has not discouraged students of the Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS) from continuing to innovate and excel. Competing in the LAI2-COVID 19 event, the Kuybot Team, consisting of three students from the Department of Systems and Industrial Engineering, the Department of Biomedical Engineering, and the Department of Physics Engineering won first place, beating 45 participants from all over Indonesia in the Robot Innovation Application sub-theme.
For the competition, Oktaviansyah Purwo Bramastyo, Sulaiman Ali, and Putri Norma Aprilia came up with the idea of a robot named Hosiro-Usiro, motivated to struggle in the campaign against the COVID-19 pandemic. “We want to create products that benefit others and medical staff through our hobbies in the world of robotics. Hosiro-Usiro is designed to minimize the necessity of direct interaction between COVID-19 patients and medical personnel,” explained Vian, Oktaviansyah’s nickname, team leader, in a release received by Independent Observer, Friday (7/24/2020).
Vian added that Hosiro-Usiro has a 2 in 1 advantage, namely, incorporating two service functions in one product. Not only can it handle patients quarantined in hospitals and others quarantined in shelters, Hosiro-Usiro also can sterilize itself and has an automatic door opener system. Designed to respond to needs, it has a large storage box to deliver food, medicine, and clothing; it also can be used for communication between medical personnel-patient, take patient temperature, detect a patient’s heart rate; it is also fitted with a treadmill.
The process of making the Hosiro-Usiro robot began in April 2020 under the guidance of ITS Department of Electrical Engineering lecturer M. Hilman Fatoni, ST MT. The Kuybot team designed the Hosiro-Usiro using several compiler materials such as the Brushless DC Motor (BLDC), which functioned to move the robot to carry heavier loads. Other constituent materials consist of a thermal camera with a function to check the patient’s temperature, a webcam for patient-medical staff communication recommendations, as well as an Omni camera for robot navigation devices, to be able to see the area around the robot in 360 degrees. “We use aluminum and stainless steel for the (robot) body,” he said.
When asked about challenges in making a useful robot, the 1998-born student revealed that the biggest obstacle experienced by the team was distance. Since the three students came from different regions, precisely Lumajang, Yogyakarta, and Sidoarjo. “So it is sometimes difficult when we are having discussions and making animated videos, especially if there are network constraints,” he added.
The 2017 System and Industry Engineering student hopes that Hosiro-Usiro can be further refined so that it can truly benefit the logistics of the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. (est)