A Tapered Soft Robotic Oropharyngeal Swab for Throat Testing: A New Way to Collect Sputa Samples

The outbreak of COVID-19 has caused immeasurable loss to the world. The highly contagious virus poses a challenging risk to public health, especially medical doctors, who are in close contact with patients. Thus, robots can help reduce the risk of medical professionals conducting massive testing with throat swabs. Soft robots, fabricated with compliant materials, allow for low-cost development and safe interaction with humans and show promising potentiality in testing.