Sharjah24 – Reuters: Designed with the help of a group of Indonesian university lecturers to entertain a village, a homemade robot has found a new use during the pandemic - bringing food, and hopefully a smile, to self-isolating residents who have contracted COVID-19.
Assembled from eclectic household items like pots, pans and an old television monitor, the robot was renamed the "Delta robot" by the project team after the highly contagious variant of the coronavirus that has ripped through Indonesia.
With the robot's head made from a rice cooker, it is operated by remote control and its battery should allow for 12 hours of operation. It has also been modified to spray disinfectant to stop the spread of the virus.
The village where the robot operates is in Surabaya, which is the capital of East Java province and Indonesia's second-biggest city. Surabaya has been swept up by a devastating second wave of coronavirus infections in the past month.
Indonesia has become the epicentre of Asia's COVID-19 outbreak and recorded more than 3.68 million infections and over 108,000 deaths from the virus.
After trundling down the street to the home of an isolating resident, the robot's speaker emits the message "assalamu'alaikum" (Peace be with you), followed by "a delivery is here. Get well soon."
On Monday (August 9) Indonesia extended COVID-19 curbs on populous Java and Bali islands until Monday (August 16) but will ease them in 26 areas where new infections are decreasing.
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