Photo: screenshot of CCTV News report

Shenyang, capital of Northeast China's Liaoning Province, has recently deployed Lingcai, a droid specially designed for taking throat swab samples for COVID-19 nucleic acid tests, on an experimental basis in the city's latest round of mass testing.

Through remote human-robot collaboration, the Lingcai droid, while adopting full isolation and protective measures, is able to complete throat swab sampling job in a fast and gentle fashion, and with greater efficiency. 

The use of the robot can also effectively prevent cross-infection between medical workers and those tested, who are especially valuable in the sampling process.

According to the developer, Shenyang Institute of Automation under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the droid can automatically register the subjects' information, making the whole sampling process traceable and ensuring the authenticity of the sampling.

The institute did not reveal how many robots were put into use.

The sample collection process supports multi-person sample collection and processing mode for more than five people automatically. 

The robot's performance has been lauded as steady by test subjects, reports said. 

Global Times