A young city engineer has designed and developed a Covid-19 Smart Swab Robot’ which can be used in collecting samples of secretions for analysis in a safe manner.

Karthi Velayudham, who had designed a robotic food tray for serving food and medicines to Covid-19 patients some time ago, demonstrated on Saturday the functioning of the device at Coimbatore Press Club.

The robotic device, weighing seven kgs, can take samples in a safe manner and can be used at laboratories for testing for Coronavirus infection. Stating that the robot can be operated by an app on Smart phone, Karthi said that the entire process of testing will be completed within two minutes

The robot, which can be rotated 360 degrees, will help in preventing the spread of the virus, even has the facility of self-cleaning after every test, he said.

A fully automated Smart Swab can be designed if the Government approved the project and extended help financially by way of encouragement, he said, adding that it took three days to develop the robot and the cost would be rs.2,000. The 30 year old Karthi lamented that he had made a futile attempt to get an appointment with Municipal Administration Minister, S P Velumani to demonstrate the robot to get approval and required support from the Government.