Prototype design of medical round supporting robot “Terapio”

Abstract

We have developed a new type of robot which accompanies the healthcare professionals making medical rounds in patient's bedrooms at hospitals. This novel robot mainly executes two tasks: the carrying armamentarium of round medical supplies and the recording electronic health data on rounds. An omni-directional mobile mechanism and a human tracking control system to follow a specified medical professionals realize smooth transfer movement from the nurses' station to patient's bedroom. Electronic health data on rounds is automatically recorded by using a CCD camera and a voice recorder. When the robot is connected via a cable to a medical data server in nurses' station, the robot transmits the patients' data to the server and receives new patients' information.