Keywords

1 Introduction

According to statistics of the World Health Organization, each year, approximately 1.35 million people’s lives are cut short because of road traffic accidents [1]. The initial 10 min, as indicated by some specialists, are named as ‘Platinum Time’ in response to accidents [2]. Though every victim’s severity of the injury and introductory clinical treatment, alongside the minimum time expected to save their life, may vary, accomplishing this minimum time is of utmost importance. The road is the most used mode of transport when responding to road traffic accidents. However, time taken by the emergency services to attend victims of accidents is prolonged by a lot of factors such as road traffic and poor conditions [3]. Therefore, there is a need to develop not only more efficient emergency rescue system but sustainable frameworks as well. Well so long as motor vehicles are used, road traffic accidents will prevail. Thus, the design of a sustainable rescue and first aid drone-based system for passenger car occupants to be incorporated in Emergence Medical Services has been proposed.

Sustainability is the capacity to develop and execute technologies or strategies, which are self-sustaining without risking the potential for future generation to address their needs [4]. Robotics for sustainable development stays an intriguing challenge where research and healthcare in developed and undeveloped countries can both contribute and benefit [5]. The main merit of using sustainable robotic systems in healthcare is improved chances of accidents victims’ survival, mainly during the golden hour [6].

2 Literature Survey

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) are more properly known as drones [7] and in coalescence with Global Positioning System (GPS), the flying machine can be remotely controlled or fly autonomously by software-controlled flight trajectories in their embedded frameworks [8]. One of the recent designs in robotics is a quadcopter designed to adopt a manipulator [9]. SOTA.

2.1 Applications of Drones in Healthcare

Drones are used to monitor disaster sites, areas with biological and chemical hazards and track disease spread [7]. One of the most promising uses of drones is in the emerging field of telemedicine, the remote diagnosis and treatment of patients using telecommunications technology. Another use of drones in the medical field is delivery, for example, the ambulance drone designed by Alec Mormont, where in his version, a smartphone app is used to call the drone during an emergency. Researchers noted that the drone arrived more quickly than Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in all cases with an average response time of 16:39 min [3]. Note, compared to helicopters and airplanes drones are energy efficient and produce less noise.

2.2 Importance of First Aid in Road Traffic Accidents (RTA)

In the case of an accident, prompt help of bystanders can save lives and decrease damage to health. The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) states that more than 50% of deaths from road traffic accidents transpire within the initial couple of minutes after the crash. In the case of cardiac arrest, the brain starts to die in the span of four minutes [10]. Each and every single minute decreases the possibilities of survival by 10%. In Europe, it takes roughly 8–15 min before the emergency service arrives [11]. Numerous critical conditions have to be treated a lot quicker, so the assistance of bystanders is important. However, the number of individuals that have gone through first-aid training does not necessarily show an elevated degree of competencies, readiness to assist on the required level. Thus, an adaptation of drone technology is essential.

3 Materials and Methods

3.1 Developing Possible Solutions

To select the optimal rescue and first aid drone-based system, Solid Works was used to develop three concepts. The first drone design was initially designed based on using the least number of materials to achieve the aims and objectives. Still, it consisted of frames attached to the motors leading to poor safety. The second concept was an improvement of the first concept, and this was achieved by inserting propeller guards there by enhancing safety. The third concept was developed based on making the strongest and safest arm design while still achieving all the objectives. This was achieved by adding a fuselage around the drone frames and propeller guards, thereby enhancing safety and aerodynamic efficiency.

3.2 Concept Selection and Detail Design of Selected Concept

A binary dominance matrix was used for selecting the optimal concept amongst the three and the third concept ranked number one and was selected for further development. The first step in designing the first aid drone was segment development for the whole machine. The following are the segments of the chosen design: first aid box, frame and propeller guards, robotic arm and actuation, software design, sensors, battery, circuit design and end effector.

3.3 Determining the Minimum Length of the Robotic Arm

The arm should perform first aid and assess the victim’s health while they are still stuck inside vehicle or outside the vehicle. In the invent they are inside the vehicle the arm should be of adequate length to reach all the victims inside the car. To make sure the arm has an adequate length, standard dimensions of common ten cars were considered. A Land Rover Defender with standard dimensions: 4758 x 1996 x 1967mm (longest width), was considered and hence, the length of the robotic arm should be at least greater than 1996mm.

3.4 Static Structural Analysis

To obtain the displacements, stresses and strains acting on the robotic manipulator components, finite element-structural analysis was done. Static simulation tool in Solid Works was used to perform the static structural analysis.

Table 1. Loads acting on the robotic arm link
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The Von Mises stress failure criterion was used for the stress analysis. The simulation results were done for the link experiencing the highest load, that is, link 1, see Table 1 above. A vertical force of 37.7N was applied at the link front while the back was fixed, where the preceding link connects. Carbon Fiber was selected as the main drone material because of its high strength to weight ratio (density \(=1.6\times {10}^{6}\mathrm{g}/{\mathrm{m}}^{3})\). Each link was assumed to be a hollow cylinder and mass determined using the following formula: \(\mathrm{Mass}=\mathrm{Density}\times \mathrm{Volume}\). The Table 1 below summaries forces and torques acting on each link derived from their masses. A safety factor of 1.5 was used to cater for the electrical and other auxiliary components.

4 Results and Discussions

The proposed systems consist of a six-link robotic manipulator, with six degrees of freedom, attached underneath a drone and for design simplicity, a quadcopter has been used. A pneumatic link which is the last link to be connected to the end effector, shown in Fig. 1 below, was adapted for performing Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) during system operation, and this is the unique part of this medical manipulator compared to those already in the market, though the gripper system design was not part of project scope. Precisely, the robotic arm’s end effector application distinguishes it from other medical robots such the Da Vinci used in laparoscopy surgery. The system components include drone fuselage (1), camera (2), dc motor (3), propeller (4), propeller guards (5), landing gear (6), first aid box (7), the robotic arm (8), compressor (9) and valve (10), see Fig. 1 below. The general operation of the rescue and first aid drone system is summarized in the flow chart below, see Fig. 4. These include mainly performing first aid at the site and in addition normal rescue operations, such as in Alec Momont’s ambulance drone [3]. These processes (see the flow chart) will be done while the EMS are on their way to the accident scene, and upon arrival, they can relieve the drone and take over the situation. Findings also show that, there is a need to incorporate a first aid drone to assist ambulances (EMS) during medical emergency rescue operations. In addition, one advantage over the defibrillator, is that the arm can perform CPR on anyone, as long as there are within the arm’s reach and there is enough space for the arm to operate. Also, a small defibrillator can be added to the system to improve the overall efficiency by complementing the pneumatic link. From the simulation results, see Fig. 2 and Fig. 3, the maximum Von Mises stresses \(2.95\times {10}^{8}\mathrm{N}/{\mathrm{m}}^{2}\) experienced in link 1, is way below the yield strength of the material \((1.01\times {10}^{9}\mathrm{N}/{\mathrm{m}}^{2}\)) and the maximum displacement of the link is relatively small \(3.928\times {10}^{-1}\mathrm{mm}\). Therefore, the design is safe under the above loads.

4.1 Achieving Sustainability in Healthcare: A Sustainable Rescue and First Aid Drone-Based System

The developed sustainable rescue and first aid drone-based system is of paramount importance when it comes to sustainability as a whole, that is, to achieve sustainability in healthcare and manufacturing industry such systems need to be adopted. As, a large portion of the rising worldwide consideration regarding air pollution centers around the effects that ozone, particulate matter and different toxins have on human health. The World Health Organization (WHO) predicts that air pollution inside and outside the house is answerable for around 7 million early deaths around the world [12]. Yet, more than one billion motorized vehicles are driven on the earth today. In the following twenty years, vehicle possession is expected to reach twofold around the world [13]. The quantity of motorized vehicles all over the planet is expected to yearly increment by 3% [14]. Established researchers trust that greenhouse gas emissions, particularly carbon dioxide (CO2), should be diminished by 50 to 80 percent by 2050 to balance out the climate and turn away economic and natural disasters [15].

Fig. 1.
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First aid drone exploded view

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From the above preamble, the key statements to note is, car are very reliable and efficient machines, the main problem is greenhouse gas emissions associated with the use fuel and hence that is how the proposed system comes into play. Obviously, this rescue and first aid drone system will not replace the cars but since it is a new system introduced to improve safety in roads and save lives. One might argue that vehicles, airplanes and helicopters ambulances are there and some are even faster than the proposed system, well the difference is that this system also preserve the environment by not contributing directly to greenhouse gas emissions since it uses a battery instead of fuel. Also, note batteries have a negative impact on the environment and their affect in drone applications is less compared to helicopters since helicopters use both larger batteries and fuel. Also, recently environment friendly electric cars have been developed, so why this rescue and first aid drone? Aside from the relatively inexpensive cost of the rescue and first aid drone-based system compared to other emergency and rescue systems, more vehicles mean more traffic (one to two billion by 2040), and road development cannot stay up with growing mobility requests. The main objective of medical emergency systems, is to attend to emergencies as promptly as possible but by 2040 this might prove to be even a greater challenge for most road ambulances around the world. However, this will not be a hurdle for the rescue and first aid drone system, it flies. Thus, achieving sustainability in healthcare.

The WHO predicts that injuries associated with road traffic will ascend from their current ninth position in the cause-of-death to the fifth spot by 2030 – being responsible for 2.4 million deaths, as well as somewhere in the range of 20 and 50 million injuries, generally of young people, and at a huge expense for the economies [16]. With this in mind, it is pellucid that, emergency medical services must adopt very effective and efficient emergency medical systems to battle what is to come, such as the proposed rescue and first aid drone-based systems for passenger car occupants.

Fig. 2.
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Total deformation of link 1

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Fig. 3.
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Stress distribution of link 1

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Furthermore, by 2030 cities will be called smart, that is, they will be connected to everything through the use of Internet of Things (IoT) and some manufacturers are integrating new technologies such Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, cloud computing and analytics, into their production and all around their operations [17]. Although, these new technology systems have been adapted in healthcare as well, still a niche lacks, thus, the proposed system can help bridge the gap between technology and healthcare, hence making the current healthcare system, such as the robotic first aid system [18], more relevant in future. Further, note should be taken that the application of the sustainable rescue and first aid drone-based system is not limited to road traffic accidents only but can be used for all emergencies like cardiac arrest and heart attack. Also, in this regard, large industrial plants can adapt it to improve safety and save lives.

5 Limitations

The main sustainable rescue and first aid drone-based system’s limitation is endurance, which is directly proportional to the drone battery life. At the same time, the whole processes associated with use of batteries has a huge impact on the environment and hence a high effect on sustainability of the system. In addition, the methods used to dispatch the drone fully depends on respondents at the scene.

6 Recommendations and Conclusion

The first aid drone system is meant to be intelligent, and hence software design plays a pivotal role in the system function; thus, further research should be done on how to improve the AI of the whole system. In addition, further studies on the design of quadcopters with high range, endurance, payload and speed has been proposed.

Fig. 4.
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Flow chart for the rescue and first aid drone-based system.

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This research’s objective was to improve the response time, quality of first aid given to passenger car occupants case of medical emergencies and most of all to outline how sustainability in healthcare can be achieved through adaptation of the rescue and first aid drone-based system. It was against this background that the researchers proposed implementing the first aid drone to assist in conducting first aid and improving the response time of Medical Emergency Services. A model of a robotic arm has been designed, and Von Mises stress analysis was conducted using Solid Works. The research findings confirmed that adapting the rescue and first aid drone-based system, can help achieve sustainability in healthcare. From the research conducted so far, it can be shown that, the science and technology of this system are very sophisticated, but can and must be implanted, if we are to achieve sustainability in healthcare.