Blue plastic baskets with barcodes carrying herbal medicines pass down a conveyor belt, heading for an automatic decocting workshop.
After its barcode is scanned, every medicine basket will be paired with its pot, and a total of 484 induction cookers will automatically start to decoct when herbs "jump" into the pots.
For thousands of years, heavy crocks, shaking fans, burning firewood and a strong smell have symbolized the decoction of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). In the brand new workshop in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, however, everything is different.
Only 11 yellow-colored robots in the workshop are busy going to and fro among rows of pots, expertly controlling and adjusting the temperature and water amount, as well as sorting the finished decoctions.
The robots are part of an intelligent decocting system of Huadong Medicine Co., Ltd., which uses the Internet of Things, big data and intelligent manufacturing to improve the ancient decocting method.
Launched last February, the system can handle 5,000 TCM prescriptions per day and produce 8,000 tonnes of decoctions every year.
As it has proved effective in improving the cure rate, TCM has been widely applied in China's battle against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic, with the company's automatic system decocting more than 100,000 bags of TCM and supporting 96 hospitals in Zhejiang so far.
"Since the symptoms of each patient are different and so are the dosages of prescriptions by TCM doctors, the filling of prescriptions should still be done by experienced pharmacists before they are decocted by the robots," said Ru Renping, director of the pharmacy department of Hangzhou's Xixi Hospital, a designated COVID-19 hospital.
Traditionally, the decocting of TCM takes a long time and involves complicated procedures.
"Even the most experienced pharmacists need to stay by the crock for hours to control the temperature and the water amount. A bowl of decoction can only be ready for use after filtering out its residue," Ru said.
The robots, however, can easily handle nearly 500 prescriptions per hour.
"TCM stresses 'one patient one prescription,' with no single standard in terms of temperature and water amount for each decoction. The system is an outcome of accumulated manual experience, massive data analysis and nearly half a year's adjustment," said Zhu Shifeng, deputy director of the company's automatic decocting center.
"The induction cookers, following the traditional decocting method, can ensure the mixture is fully boiled. Every pot will be cleaned once finished decocting to avoid cross-contamination," he said.
