HelpMate: A robotic courier for hospital use

Abstract

HelpMate has been designed to perform fetch and carry tasks while exhibiting humanlike behavior as it navigates down crowded hallways in the hospital. The tasks typically performed by the robot are carrying late meal trays, sterile supplies, medications, medical records, reports, samples, specimens, and mail. HelpMate is able to traverse the main arteries of hospitals, crossing between the buildings using interconnected corridors and elevators. Odometry-based navigation is enhanced by sonar, infrared, and vision sensors which aid in obstacle detection and avoidance maneuvers. A map of the hospital is made available to HelpMate, from which it is able to generate a path from any location in the hospital to any destination. An extremely simple human interface has been specially designed for this application. The onboard screen, emergency stops, warning lights, turn signals, and pause buttons provide easy and quick interaction with the system.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>