Design and Implementation of a Robot System for High Efficiency Automatic Oropharyngeal Swab Sampling

For normalized prevention and control of novel corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, a robot system is desired to assist in performing large numbers of oropharyngeal (OP) swab sampling. However, reliability and efficiency are still challenges for the practical application of existing robot systems. In this paper, a robot system and related implementation scheme for high efficiency automatic OP swab sampling are developed. A novel robot end-effector with a disposable protective cover is designed, that testee keeps biting on its terminal during sampling. The main steps of the sampling procedure, including sterilizing, recycling, swab mounting and collection, are realized automatically. The effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed robot system are validated through experiment on human subjects. The whole sampling procedure takes about 80 to 90 seconds.