Nurses in hospitals spend a significant amount of work with preparation and administrative tasks. F&P develops light weight personal robots implementing an intrinsic security concept. Their next goal is to introduce their robots in the Healthcare sector, supporting the tasks performed by the health professionals. The shortage of qualified personnel encourages hospitals to focus the work of nurses on their key tasks - medical treatments and care. The project Robot Assistant for Nurses (RAN) aims to automate the very frequent and labor intensive task of material preparation before the taking of blood samples. The RAN system is designed to have a big potential for extension to other medical treatments.
F&P Robotics AG
F&P Robotics AG, founded in January 2014, is a Swiss pioneer in the field of Personal Robotics. The company develops and produces collaborative lightweight robot manipulators. F&P Robotics AG offers complete robotic solutions, having established expertise in both robot arm and effector technologies, as well as in the software development.
Contribution from RTOs
Fraunhofer IPA
Hardware integration
Adapt and test object detection and recognition software
Adapt and test motion planning software to pick and place objects
Implement simple use case
MTC
Questionnaire development about the blood sample process
Storage system concept for the blood samples
Impact (expected)
The voucher work is expected to enable F&P to create the first concept of a RAN which supports nurses in taking blood samples. The mobile platform stores all the necessary tools and material for taking a blood sample and is able to reach all the material and to prepare it according to instructions on a tray. If something is missing during the blood extraction, RAN can hand over further material upon request. This is an important feature, as the nurse is not allowed to touch a tray or other devices during sterile procedures. Currently, a second nurse is called for assistance. Furthermore, the questionnaire will allow to understand how to safely introduce robots in the healthcare and their main benefits to this new application sector.
