The ‘Super Robot 10’ project is mostly a story of solidarity; in fact, five people have given their best to fight the Covid-19 pandemic and save their lives. Their job has been to locate 4 stations in Spain, each with ten robots. This will allow 2,400 PCR tests per day to be analyzed in a mechanized manner in the hospital. Among the four, therefore, 9,600 tests can be performed per day, which is more than 67,000 per week.

These super robots have been targeted at four hospitals that are among the most important at the diagnostic testing level. Its laboratories are currently working at full capacity to detect positive cases of coronavirus: in Madrid, the Carlos III Health Institute and La Paz Hospital; and in Barcelona, ​​the Clínic and Vall d’Hebron hospitals.
On the other hand, it is worth noting that this is also a story of overcoming, as the idea has had to overcome a number of obstacles in its rapid birth. It’s been a race against the clock where everything has gone ahead in record time. A project has been carried out for three weeks, for which it would have to wait more than a year if it follows traditional paths.

Rocío, María, Sandra, Javier and Andreu

‘Super Robot 10’ has five proper names: Rocío Martínez, a researcher at King’s College London; Andreu Veà, entrepreneur in the field of telecommunications and president of the Spanish Internet Society; María Parga, Director of BME and President of Alastria, a non-profit association that promotes the digital economy through a blockchain or blockchain; Sandra Figaredo, consultant at Llorente y Cuenca; and Javier Colás, Director of Innovation at Esade and President of Medtronic Spain. The five have imprinted their personal footprint on this project, which is unlikely to move forward without each other’s contribution.

The idea was born in early March, while Andreu Veà was watching as the coronavirus of the coronavirus swept Spain after destroying the Chinese province of Hubei and northern Italy. He did not want to stand idly by and called for help from his network of contacts in search of an innovative project that would be able to help him in this health crisis. Educated as an engineer, his decisive head set his eyes on this project, which is called upon to fight the pandemic over the next few months: to increase the ability to perform PCR tests.

“I’m part of a small community, which is an email address basket or distribution list that includes all the people I’ve worked, lived, or studied with,” says Andreu Veàk. "We are 1,800 people, spread across 98 cities on five continents, a network of people who do spectacular projects around the world and help others, we do things, we teach and help each other without waiting for anything."

Open source philosophy

They immediately set their eyes on Opentrons, an American company that builds sanitary robots in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, capable of massively analyzing the most reliable PCR tests. Rocío Martínez of King’s College explained to the team that these machines offered a substantial advantage over other similar products that exist in the market: their open nature, including an open source philosophy, where there are no patents. Opentrons robots also work with open source hardware, which allows them to design robots to the exact size of each hospital.

“I have an idea of ​​the art of war: war is not won by the best soldiers, but by those who keep the supply, who keep the logistics longer and we couldn’t.