The LINGCAI-II System: A Sampling Robotic System for Autonomous Oropharyngeal Swab Sampling

The fight against infectious diseases is a permanent theme in the history of humans, especially the pandemic of COVID-19 made a severe impact on the world. The sampling robot which can instead of medical staff in the oropharyngeal swab(OP-swab) sampling is a new form of medical robot that emerged during the pandemic. Robot with continuous automatic sampling capability, which can maximize the value of robots. In this paper, we presented the LINGCAI-II robot, which is the upgrade of the LINGCAI-I robot and can realize the automatic OP-swab sampling in clinical application. Based on the intraoral image and contact force, we proposed an automatic sampling method for robots which includes a three-level visual identification algorithm, trajectory planner, force position hybrid controller, and quality evaluator. By cooperating with other function stations inside the robot, the LINGCAI-II robot can complete the whole process of the sample without manual assistance. The volunteer trial results show that the robot sampling can get more cells in the swab tip than the manual sample. We set up a robot sampling workstation and carried out the clinical trial for 116 COVID-19 patients. Our clinical trials achieved 96 COVID-19 patients diagnosed by robot sampling. This is the first time that the sampling robot achieved application for confirmed patients automatically. The results demonstrated the feasibility of automatic robot sampling in infectious diseases.