A team from the University of South Australia has begun developing a drone to monitor patients suffering from infectious respiratory disease including Covid-19.
These "epidemic drones" will be equipped with a sensor that is able to remotely monitor a person´s temperature as well as their heart rate and breathing.
It will also be able to discover people who have symptoms such as coughing and sneezing in offices, cruise ships, airports, nursing homes, and places with a high risk of transmission.
The project is chaired by Jawan Chal, head of sensor systems at the Department of Defense who has a joint appointment at the University of South Australia.
He said that this technology was initially developed to be used to monitor signs of life in war and natural disaster areas or to monitor heart rates for premature infants in incubators, but it could now be vital in combating the outbreak of the new Coruna virus.
"You may not discover all cases, but it may be a reliable tool to detect the presence of the disease in a place or in a group of people," Chal said in a media statement.
It is worth noting that the University of South Australia has partnered with a company that specializes in drone technology to improve and deploy this technology for use by the government, the medical sector, and commercial customers.
