NLP Enabled Autonomous Indoor Navigation Robot for Kannada in RHCs

Kunal A Kathare, Kushal C G, Kevin Philip Kottukapally, Kshitij Sharma, Vadiraja Acharya

Abstract:

In Regional Healthcare Centers (RHCs) in many
of rural areas of India, due to the language barriers between
the patients and the RHC staff, communication difficulties often
intensifies the patient’s stress due to their inability to understand
the workings of a RHC. This research paper presents a medical
service robot which is designed to overcome these issues. The
medical service robot can understand the patient’s symptoms
which are described to it in Kannada language using speech
recognition and then using NLP techniques, it will be able to
predict the appropriate department to guide the patient to. The
robot then uses ROS2 and its navigation techniques to guide
the patient to the appropriate department location. The robot
is also attached with a camera at the back so that it can track
the patient and see to it that the patient follows the robot. This
paper discusses the technical aspects of the robot, highlighting its
potency in improving the patient experience. This innovation has
the capability to amplify the healthcare accessibility and patient
care in rural areas of India, reducing linguistic and navigational
challenges.