The healthcare sector is grappling with a critical staff deficit, prompting a surge in the quest for creative solutions. Robotics offers a promising avenue for assistance, yet hospital environments are complex structures teeming with potential impediments for mobile robots. A variety of obstacles such as doors, beds, wheelchairs, carts, and IV poles require a robot’s agility and versatility to be significantly sophisticated.
Assessing Robot Potential in Hospitals
To test the practicality of robots in addressing the workforce shortfall, a prominent hospital network orchestrated an obstacle course. This course was replete with the types of challenges robots may struggle with. Relay Robotics stepped up as the initial contender to tackle this specialized course.
Relay’s Remarkable Performance
In late 2023, a Relay robot from Relay Robotics was deployed to the obstacle course. Impressively, within only 2.5 hours of deployment, Relay had navigated and overcome each challenge. These included maneuvering around moving wheelchairs without incident, handling steep ramps while carrying heavy loads, circumventing protruding drawers, and skilfully avoiding mobile IV poles, among others.
The challenges Relay faced included unexpected floor items like towels, navigating over cords and other floor obstacles, crossing elevator thresholds, and fitting through narrow doorways. Additionally, the robot was equipped to emit specific sounds at designated areas to alert people of its presence.
This rigorous testing environment serves as a window into the future of healthcare automation, where robots are seamlessly integrated into hospital workflows. Relay’s successful navigation of this intricate obstacle course, coupled with numerous successful real-world healthcare deployments, underscores the readiness of mobile robots to mitigate labor shortages and boost operational efficiency in medical facilities.
