ABSTRACT
Medical wastes are generated in healthcare facilities and hospitals, and they include discarded materials that are contaminated with blood or infectious materials, used syringes, gloves, etc. Medical wastes are hazardous;hence, they require a special attention. The objective of this chapter is to introduce medical waste constituents, medical waste regulations, and conventional and advanced methods of medical waste management and control. This chapter discusses waste management techniques such as segregation, labeling, separation, and waste minimization methods, in addition to medical waste treatment methods including landfilling, autoclaving, chemical disinfection, microwave disinfection, plasma gasification, and pyrolysis. Furthermore, medical waste management and control during COVID-19 pandemic is examined through recent case studies. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.
ABSTRACT
Solid waste management is one of the critical challenges seen everywhere, and the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has only worsened the problems in the safe disposal of infectious waste. This paper outlines a design for a mobile robot that will intelligently identify, grasp, and collect a group of medical waste items using a six-degree of freedom (DoF) arm, You Only Look Once (YOLO) neural network, and a grasping algorithm. Various designs are generated before running simulations on the selected virtual model using Robot Operating System (ROS) and Gazebo simulator. A lidar sensor is also used to map the robot's surroundings and navigate autonomously. The robot has good scope for waste collection in medical facilities, where it can help create a safer environment.