A Safe, Efficient and Integrated Indoor Robotic Fleet for Logistic Applications in Healthcare and Commercial Spaces: The ENDORSE Concept

Abstract

Hospitals are rightfully considered a field of indoor logistic robotics of high commercial potential. However, today, only a handful of mobile robotic solutions for hospital logistics exist that have failed to trigger widespread acceptance by the market. This is because existing systems require costly infrastructure installation, they do not easily integrate to corporate IT solutions, are not adequately shielded from cybersecurity threats, and as a result, they do not fully automate procedures and traceability of the items they carry. Moreover, existing systems are limited on scope, focusing only on delivery services, and hence do not provide any other type of support to the medical and nursing staff. ENDORSE system will address the aforementioned technical challenges and functional limitations by pursuing four innovation pillars: (i) infrastructure-less multirobot indoor navigation; (ii) advanced Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) for resolving deadlocks and achieving efficient sharing of space resources in crowded environments; (iii) deployment of the ENDORSE software as a cloud-based service facilitating its integration with corporate software solutions, complying with GDPR data security requirements; (iv) reconfigurable and modular hardware architectures so that diverse modules can be easily swapped. ENDORSE functionality will be demonstrated via the integration of an e-diagnostic support module for vital signs monitoring on a fleet of mobile robots, facilitating connectivity to cloud-based Electronic Health Records (EHR), and validated in an operational hospital environment for realistic assessment.

Internet of Robotic Things Intelligent Connectivity and Platforms

“…An overview of application areas for IoRT is given in Grieco et al ( 2014 ), Vermesan et al ( 2017b ) Duckett et al ( 2018 ), Zachiotis et al ( 2018 ), Ramdani et al ( 2019 ), Tractica ( 2019 ), Sitaramanjaneya et al ( 2019 ), Guizzo ( 2020 ), and Galar et al ( 2020 ).…”

The requirements and applications of autonomous mobile robotics (AMR) in hospitals from the perspective of nursing officers

“…On the one hand, the human factor is removed from many monotonous, stressful and nonprofessional work areas, which significantly reduces the error rate while increasing the health professionals' use of skills and productivity. On the other hand, AMR make a decisive contribution to the optimization of processes in intralogistics and ensure that the necessary resources are available at the right point of care and at the right time, and that the quality and safety of inpatient care is increased sustainably [32]. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the hygiene aspect and the separation of different patient groups and flows suddenly became the focus of hospital management.…”

Ambient Assisted Living: A Review of Technologies, Methodologies and Future Perspectives for Healthy Aging of Population

“…Social Assistive Robots are less common than wearable or environmental sensors, but they represent an emerging technology that can support and enhance human activities, especially in heavy tasks [88]. Social Assistive Robots can be used for different purposes: to overcome elderly inabilities; to relieve nursing staff from time-consuming, non-empathic, and repetitive tasks in retirement house [89,90]; to transport food or medicine carts; for grasping objects [20]; for laundry collection; and, delivery services, mail delivery, warehouse logistics, trash logistics, and cleaning material logistics [91]. With the spread of these innovative technologies, the service quality can increase and, at the same time, resident and staff satisfaction improve.…”