UNAIR NEWS – Five students of Faculty of Vocations (FV) Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) have invented a medical robot which is able to sterilize operating theatres. It is a new tech following the previous robots known through contests before such as fire extinguishing robot, Doraemmon robot, Remo dancing robot, ball mover robot, etc.
Those five students of Faculty of Vocations (FV) Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) were Akhmad Afrizal R. (Automation System Instrumentation/OSI ’14), Mokhammad Deny B. (OSI ’13), Mokhammad Dedy B. (OSI ’13), Rizky Altryara (OSI ’13), and Pratama Bagus B. (OSI ’13). Their work was titled”LUVIZER (Line Ultraviolet Sterilizer) Artificial Device Pengoptimalisasi Daya Germisidal Sinar UV (Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation) Sebagai Alat Pensteril Kamar Operasi”. Because of this invention, they were through the selection and got funding from General Directorate of Higher Education in the Students Creativity Program – Creativity (PKM-KC) 2016.
The background of operating theatre sterilizing robot, according to Akhmad Afrizal R was to address patient safety issue in medical field. It should be responded well to improve service quality and prevent possible malpractice. It can be done in one way through room sterilization.
“Why it has to be sterilized, because the medical instruments or the room like wards and operating theatre are used to treat patients. Sterilization prevents patients from bacterial and viral contamination. Unsterilized room will hamper the surgery performed by the surgeons and increase failure risk of the surgery such as caused by bacterial infection in the air,” said Akhmad Afrizal.
Along with technological development in bio-engineering, LUVIZER use is deemed appropriate. This sterilizing robot is the hybrid version of line follower robot and manual sterilization devie which can be remotely controlled from afar digitally with controller arduino, so it can perform operating theatre disinfection.
This disinfection method used Ultraviolet (UV) with short enough wavelength to kill microorganisms. Furthermore the UV light can destroy nucleic acid from the organisms which causes its DNA affected by UV radiation, so the organisms cannot perform the important cellular functions.
According to Afrizal, LUVIZER’s concept has been changed for few times and finally became operating theatre sterilizing robot. This medical robot is very safe with Passive Infrared Receiver (PIR) which can recognize human body temperature.
“The ultraviolet lamp we use was UVC with 260nm wavelength whose radiation creates chemical and germicidal effects which are able to eradicate bacteria. We also added PIR sensor so if there is a person in the operating room, it will shut down automatically, so medical personnels are free from the radiation,” said Mokhamad Deny B, another team member .
They admitted, overall this robot is not yet ready for mass production, it still needs development and further tests. But in the future, LUVIZER is expected to be applied widely, so it can improve effectiveness of germicidal radiation exposure in the operating theatre. (*)
Author : Bambang ES
