Akazuba, Ikizere and Ngabo are part of the treatment team at Rwanda's Kanyinya Covid-19 treatment facility, a short distance from the capital Kigali, but they are no ordinary healthcare workers.
The three robots carry out simple tasks like taking temperatures and monitoring patients to help minimise the exposure of doctors and nurses to the coronavirus.
White with big bright blue eyes and a rather human appearance, the robots were donated by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and developed by Belgium-based Zorabots.
Together with two other robots at the Nyamata Covid-19 treatment centre in south-east Kigali, they are helping frontline workers tackle the coronavirus crisis in the East African nation which so far has 355 confirmed cases of the disease.
"The three robots that we have are part of the treating team," said David Turatsinze, a doctor at the 75-bed Kanyinya centre, which housed 65 patients when the Reuters team visited.
By relaying messages to doctors and helping the team assess the effectiveness of their clinical decisions, the robots cut the number of bedside visits that doctors have to make.
Francine Umutesi, a bio-medical engineer who works as a health technology operations specialist at the ministry of health, said the robots were a first for Africa and had the potential to offer even more support to medical teams.
"It doesn't remove the tasks the doctors are supposed to do, it's just complementing their efforts," she said.
Rwanda already uses drones to deliver blood and enforce restrictions designed to slow the spread of Covid-19.
Fabrice Goffin, joint chief executive of Zorabots, said his robots had been in hospitals, care homes and hotels since 2013, but had found a new role with the coronavirus pandemic.
They have been deployed at the Antwerp University Hospital in Belgium, where they take the temperature of arriving patients and make sure they are wearing a mask correctly, before gauging the likelihood and severity of infection and directing them to the appropriate part of the clinic.
"If the patient or visitor has a temperature or a mask that is not correctly worn, the screen will show: 'You have a problem, you can not go into the hospital like that'," said Dr Michael Vanmechelen, manager of the hospital's operating theatres.
"You have to check with an employee of the hospital nearby. So the robot is never going to work alone, it's always in support of an employee who works there," he said.
"The big advantage of this robot relative to a fixed terminal is that the robot can move, can go towards people, can speak to people and speak in their native tongue," said Mr Goffin. "It speaks more than 53 languages."
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Coronavirus around the world
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People gather for a peaceful rally in support of George Floyd in front of the police station in Des Moines, Iowa. Floyd died earlier this week in police custody in Minneapolis. AP -
An employee cleans a table before offering it to customers at the Gato terrace in Madrid, Spain. All regions of Spain have now entered either Phase One or Phase Two of the transition from its coronavirus lockdown. Getty Images -
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People wearing masks walk with the Singapore Flyer and The Central Business district area in the background in Singapore. EPA -
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Officials of a Buddhist temple check congregants' temperatures before allowing entry to a temple on South Korea's southern resort island of Jeju, South Korea. EPA -
People attend a ceremony of Buddha's birthday at Jogyesa Temple in Seoul, South Korea. Getty Images -
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In this photo released by Chinese nurse Zhang Dan, she looks after a patient being treated for Covid-19 at the Tongji hospital in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province. AP -
Workers sit on stools along a street in Hanoi, Vietnam. Bloomberg -
Sanitation at the Las Pulgas market in Maracaibo, Venezuela. EPA -
Christopher Bagay, a kitchen crew of the Aida Sol cruise ship in Europe, walks beside children's toys upon arriving at his home in Laguna province, south of Manila, Philippines.AP Photo -
An aerial view of residents watching the movie 'Trolls' at a drive-in movie arranged by Nassau County at the parking lot of NYCB's LIVE at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York. Getty Images -
An employee wearing a protective mask cleans a entrance of a restaurant in Yurakucho district of Tokyo, Japan. Bloomberg -
A Venezuelan migrant wearing a face mask is seen standing in line to receive food aid in Bogota, Colombia. Reuters
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Jan Bussels, head of digitopia, which developed the software and interface, said the robot was designed to help take over repetitive work and allow over-stretched medical staff to focus on their core job as care givers. The robot was also able to learn on the job, he said.
The robots, typically costing €30,000 (Dh122,360), have also been sold to clinics in France, the Netherlands and the United States.
Rwandan officials said the robots could be programmed to carry out additional tasks in future.
"In the future if they are programmed to take even blood pressure and the [blood] sugar, that definitely would be so helpful," said Dr Turatsinze.
