Service robots for hospitals: A case study of transportation tasks in a hospital

Author

Özkil, Ali Gürcan ; Fan, Zhun ; Dawids, Steen ; Aanes, H. ; Kristensen, Jens Klæstrup ; Christensen, Kim Hardam

Author_Institution

Dept. of Manage. Eng., Tech. Univ. of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark

fYear

2009

fDate

5-7 Aug. 2009

Firstpage

289

Lastpage

294

Abstract

In this paper, the need for automated transportation systems for hospitals is investigated. Among other alternatives, mobile robots stand out as the most prominent means of automation of transportation tasks in hospitals. Existing transportation routines of a hospital are analyzed in order to verify the need for automation and identify possible areas of improvement. The analysis shows that most of the existing transportation is carried out manually, and hospitals can greatly benefit from automated transportation. Based on the results of the analysis, three alternatives are derived for implementing mobile service robots for transportation tasks in hospitals.

Keywords

logistics; medical robotics; mobile robots; service robots; transportation; automated transportation system; hospital transportation routine; logistics system; mobile robot; service robot; Conference management; Engineering management; Hospitals; Innovation management; Logistics; Mobile robots; Road transportation; Robotics and automation; Service robots; Technology management; AGV; hospital logistics; mobile robots;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Automation and Logistics, 2009. ICAL '09. IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Shenyang

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-4794-7

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-4795-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICAL.2009.5262912

Filename

5262912