Remote Medical Assistance Vehicle in Covid-19 Quarantine Areas: A Case Study in Vietnam

ABSTRACT

The pain, namely “Covid-19 epidemic", has caused many sacrifices, loss, and loneliness. Only those who have experienced traumatic losses can fully understand the pain that is hard to erase by the epidemic. This study focuses on designing a remote medical assistance vehicle used in quarantine areas in Vietnam to support epidemic prevention with simple, cheap, easy-to-use, and multi-function criteria. The proposed system includes a 3-layer vehicle for transporting supplies controlled remotely via Radio Frequency (RF) signals to help limit cross-infection for medical staff and volunteers. The main component is the RF transceiver circuit, which transmits and receives data wirelessly over 2.4 GHZ RF using IC Nrf24l01, Nordic standard SPI interface for remote control. DC motor driver circuit BTS7960 43A controls the motor to prevent overvoltage and current drop. Moreover, the vehicle integrates an electric sprayer to support disinfecting spray a Xiaomi camera to stream video and communicate directly with patients and healthy in isolation. Ultrasonic sensors and infrared sensors aim to scan obstacles through reflected waves. The reflected signals received from the barrier objects are used as input to the microcontroller. The microcontroller is then used to determine the distance of objects around the vehicle. If an obstacle is detected, the disinfectant sprayer can stop for several seconds to ensure the safety of medical staff if there is a pass. The system has a built-in light sensor that works at night. The system is deployed at a low cost and is evaluated through some experiments. It is expected to be easy to use and is an innovative solution for hospitals. Once the outbreak is over, the product can still be used in infectious disease areas. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.