This was one I really could not resist!
Robots! To the nurses' station, stat
Matt Hamblen
March 03, 2008 (Computerworld) While deadly Terminator-style robots are making a comeback in a new television series, a more benign variety of the machines are delivering drugs and tracking medical equipment throughout a North Carolina hospital.
Called "Tug" and "Homer", the robots from Aethon Inc. are reducing costs at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital in Pinehurst, N.C., said CIO Dave Dillehunt.
"Our motto is 'We care for people,' and robots are one way we do it," Dillehunt said in an interview.
Dillehunt estimates that the hospital has already saved $150,000 by using its five robots. In addition to making deliveries, the robots locate expensive medical equipment wirelessly with RFID tags, which means the hospital can reduce the supply of equipment on hand. He said the hospital was able to cut the number of infusion pumps by 250, down from 700, resulting in that $150,000 savings.
In all, the robots have replaced four workers who made deliveries, but all four were trained for other jobs, Dillehunt said. The robots first appeared in 2006, but RFID tracking started last summer. "There was staff concern initially, but [the robots have] actually freed up staff for other things," he said.
The robots move on wheels and navigate by dead reckoning and lasers, relying on a blueprint of hospital hallways in their memories to calculate turns and distances and the locations of elevators, said Barry Skirble, CIO at Aethon in Pittsburgh. Using a wireless network, they can even call for an elevator.
Continue reading with a photo here:
While it is slow it seems that gradually robots are finding their niche in the health sector in areas like automated dispensing systems and laboratory automation and now as automated supply couriers.
This is shown by an even more recent article that appeared a day or so ago..
Japan welcomes robots into daily life
By HIROKO TABUCHI The Associated Press
TOKYO – At a university lab in a Tokyo suburb, engineering students are wiring a rubbery robot face to simulate six basic expressions: anger, fear, sadness, happiness, surprise and disgust.
Hooked up to a database of words clustered by association, the robot – dubbed Kansei, or "sensibility" – responds to the word "war" by quivering in what looks like disgust and fear. It hears "love," and its pink lips smile.
"To live among people, robots need to handle complex social tasks," said project leader Junichi Takeno of Meiji University. "Robots will need to work with emotions, to understand and eventually feel them.
While robots are a long way from matching human emotional complexity, the country is perhaps the closest to a future – once the stuff of science fiction – in which humans and intelligent robots routinely live side by side and interact socially.
Robots are already taken for granted in Japanese factories, so much so that they are sometimes welcomed on their first day at work with Shinto religious ceremonies. Robots make sushi. Robots plant rice and tend paddies.
There are robots serving as receptionists, vacuuming office corridors, spoon-feeding the elderly. They serve tea, greet company guests and chatter away at public technology displays. Now, startups are marching out robotic home helpers.
Continue reading here
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080309/BUSINESS/941317777/-1/OPINION02
It is amazing that it is now possible to build a clear cut business case for the use of such technology, and is some countries it is becoming the norm!
All good stuff!
David.
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