Design of a Robotic Arm for Human Contactless Patient Monitoring Through Measuring Different Bio-signals

The importance of human contactless monitoring was greatly felt during the COVID-19 pandemic. Physical interactions were reduced to maintain safety precautions against spreading the contagious diseases from person to person. Learning lessons from this, various industries, including the healthcare system, are now emphasizing human contactless or touchless alternative solutions. This research work is motivated by the need to address critical healthcare challenges posed by contagious diseases, limited resource availability, and an inadequate number of healthcare workers. The objective of this research work is to design and implement a 3D-printed robotic arm that is equipped with advanced sensors capable of measuring multiple non-invasive vital bio-signals. This robotic arm is equipped with multiple sensors, including a photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor, an electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor, an electrodermal activity (EDA) sensor, and a temperature sensor to measure various parameters such as cuffless blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen saturation (SpO2) from PPG and HRV analysis from ECG, sweat and stress detection, and skin temperature, while presenting the data on a display. One of the key aspects of this research work is its ability to obtain data from R-R intervals to analyze SDNN, SDANN, RMSSD, SDSD, pNN50, and pNN20, offering valuable insights into heart rate variability (HRV) for cardiovascular disease and mental health detection from the sensor implemented in the robotic arm. The hardware results are carefully compared with real-life data to validate the system's effectiveness. This research work is unique due to the implementation of a noble vital sign measurement technique, analysis, and decision-generating system that enhances its effectiveness in the healthcare system.