PILLBOT: Non-Contact Medicine Dispensing System for Patients in Quarantine

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a great risk faced by health workers when attending to those infected. We can reduce the risk of infection and minimize direct contact with these patients. For this, we need to develop a smart substitute that can carry out some of the necessary tasks. Advances in IoT have led to different applications. This paper presents PILLBOT, which is a prototype that moves using voice control mechanisms. It has two main contents: Pill dispenser and Syrup dispenser. Pill dispenser is designed for patients who forget to take their medication in time and the Syrup dispenser is designed for patients who are prescribed cough syrups. The prototype can be controlled by the health worker via Google assistant with Adafruit.io cloud service and remote-control app. Once it reaches the patient, he/she can place the medicine container on a sensor-based platform that triggers the dispenser circuit, therefore, procuring the medicine. PILLBOT represents an ideal substitute for a service robot that can be remotely controlled.