The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the mental and emotional health of patients, family members, health-care workers, and the community. Patients are affected by symptoms produced by prolonged hospitalization and isolation, and health-care workers are affected by the stress produced by the possibility of infection and rapid changes in the kinds of care they provide. Robotics technologies can contribute to addressing these stresses. This article describes the development and main characteristics of Pudu, a telepresence robot designed to provide safe communication between COVID-19 patients and health-care workers, particularly neurologists and intensive care psychologists. The article identifies the key aspects that enabled the development and deployment of the robot in just eight weeks during an intensive quarantine and describes how the robot is assisting health-care workers in providing mental and psychological health care. At present, two Pudu robots are in use in two Chilean hospitals. Although the city of Santiago is moving toward less-intensive levels of quarantine, our robots are still needed to help provide the required emotional support and mental/psychological health care to confined patients.

中文翻译：

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COVID-19 患者的心理和情绪保健：使用远程呈现机器人 Pudu


COVID-19 大流行正在影响患者、家庭成员、医护人员和社区的精神和情绪健康。患者受到长期住院和隔离所产生的症状的影响，而医护人员则受到感染可能性和他们提供的护理类型快速变化所产生的压力的影响。机器人技术有助于解决这些压力。本文介绍了 Pudu 的开发和主要特征，Pudu 是一种远程呈现机器人，旨在为 COVID-19 患者和医护人员（特别是神经科医生和重症监护心理学家）之间提供安全通信。该文章确定了在密集隔离期间短短八周内开发和部署机器人的关键方面，并描述了机器人如何协助医护人员提供精神和心理保健。目前，两台Pudu机器人正在智利两家医院使用。尽管圣地亚哥市正在朝着不太严格的隔离水平迈进，但我们的机器人仍然需要帮助为受限制的患者提供所需的情感支持和精神/心理保健。