When the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) swept through the world in the past year, the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) responded quickly and introduced innovation and technology (I&T) solutions to address the clients' pressing need to fight the virus. As the epidemic continues to unfold, the EMSD carries on to promote the long-term application of I&T solutions to address the needs of client venues, ensuring that these solutions will continue to benefit the clients and the public in the long run.
The EMSD has introduced a robotic delivery solution recently for trial at the General Office of the Prince Philip Dental Hospital. The delivery robot has been used to deliver documents, enabling staff to focus on other administrative tasks. It helped our client reduce social contact at the office, while alleviating the workload of frontline staff. The EMSD and the contractor first affixed markers on the ceiling within the operating range of the robot, then the markers were scanned by the infrared camera of the robot to facilitate navigation and positioning, which allowed establishment of delivery routes and delivery locations. After placing items in the robot’s internal storage compartment and selecting the delivery location on the touch screen, the robot will automatically complete the task using the navigation route. In service at the Prince Philip Dental Hospital for more than eight months, the delivery robot has been assisting in document delivery to various offices of the General Office, minimising the risk of virus spread arising from human contact.
Go to https://bit.ly/3mFhLmF to view a demonstration video of the delivery robot.
The EMSD has been working closely with the Immigration Department since 2019 on a variety of I&T solutions, which were demonstrated in late October 2020. Among which, the automatic disinfection robot will scan the environment and map navigation routes using an optical radar, move to the pre-set locations autonomously, and carry out sterilisation with ultraviolet lamps and atomised disinfectant to strengthen anti-epidemic measures. The EMSD is now looking into various add-on features for the robot to cope with the client’s other operational needs. Meanwhile, the client also planned to install the fever screening system at the entrance of its new headquarters to detect unwell individuals. The headcount sensor control system could also be deployed in public areas for a better understanding of visitor distribution inside the building, which would facilitate visitor traffic management and manpower arrangement for relevant public services.
Environmental sanitation is essential in creating a safe environment for the public and our colleagues. At the onset of the epidemic, the EMSD has identified more than ten disinfection robots, which offer ultraviolet light, atomised disinfectant, vacuum cleaning and other functions. They have been successively deployed to our client departments, such as the Immigration Department, the Hongkong Post and the Auxiliary Medical Service on a trial basis since April 2020. The robot deployed to the Fire and Ambulance Services Academy under the Hong Kong Fire Services Department has been used to sterilise a wide range of indoor areas of its Administration Block. The disinfection robots were also deployed to public markets managed by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department to assist in cleaning the markets and alleviate manpower pressure when the epidemic situation was severe.
If you are interested in the above robot solutions, please contact Mr. Lai Chun-fai, Senior Engineer, at 2808 3879 to explore how these I&T solutions may address the needs of your department.