Robot Nurse for Patient's Lifting

This document reports the development of a Robot Nurse for Patient’s Lifting or Robot Enfermera para Carga de Pacientes (RECPA). This robot is designed for hospital use and is capable of assisting nursing personnel during the mobilization of patients. In the same way, it has a multimodal social interface that allows human-robot interaction in different modalities. The robot aims to be a support tool for nursing personnel, avoiding physical risks in their work environment. We target mainly to avoid back injuries, the most common work injury in nursing.The project was developed during 2017 and 2018 in collaboration with multiple partners (Hoiho, Fusmat, Mirai, Korella and Libersalus) under an agile project management method (SCRUM). The design and development have been supported by an in-depth analysis of the international and national robot markets. Similarly, a collection of qualitative and quantitative observations of hospital requirement and regulations was done. As a consequence, a high-resolution robot prototype is proposed to lift weight up to 70Kg.This report describes the technical advances of the project with a multidisciplinary approach; interaction design, multimodal interfaces, mechatronics, and social and service robotics for healthcare. Three main sections describe the multiple modules that conform the robot: the mechatronics section, the interface section and the product design. Each of these sections describes the design and development of 18 modules for user's control, positing of the robot and lifting weight. Initial sections describe the market study, definition of the needs, design proposals and early prototypes. Later chapters describe the construction of the robot, the development of the designs, redesign process, and modifications due to the limitations in equipment and manufacturing.RECPA presents several novelties in the successful integration of mechatronic devices and multimodal interactive technologies for the control of this service robot aiming health industry. For instance, RECPA lifts 70Kg that represents an improvement over other robotic systems. Also, RECPA can be operated using a multimodal interface (eye movement, gestures, touch screen and joystick) that requires a minimal user's training. Additionally, the social interface facilitates user’s interaction. However, the project also was constrained by intrinsic Mexican conditions such as access to imported materials and equipment, specialized experience professionals, and corporative culture for the coordination of complex projects. Tests of the final prototype show that the RECPA robot is capable of lifting a static punctual load of 70 kg when the robot does not move. On-site load tests damaged the robot; hence, various repairs of the prototype were required. Future work of this project implies a) Testing with human patients (partnership with a health institution is required), b) Registration intellectual property and c) Research and development to build a prototype suitable to pass international regulations (FCC and FDA) among others. These improvements require further financial investments and the application of strict security protocols supervised by an external biomedical consultancy. The present results and prototype can be considered satisfactory according to time and financial setup. In the near future, Libersalus SA de CV aims to achieve the final goal of lifting a patient using RECPA, with the support of new investments and similar partnerships