AutoFeed x VITESTRO

To use the blood sampling robots, the correct blood sample tubes with the patient's information must first be inserted into a special VITESTRO rack, which must then be inserted into the robots themselves. After the blood sample is drawn, the rack with the now filled test tubes must be removed from the blood sampling robot and transported to the Department of Clinical Biochemistry. These workflows are in addition to the actual blood sampling that the VITESTRO robot performs, and this means that the full labour-saving potential is not achieved if the staff has to perform these tasks for each patient.

AIM

The purpose of the AutoFeed project is therefore to test and investigate the possibilities and potential of having an autonomous robot perform these tasks, so that the staff has more time for the patients.

The AutoFeed robot consists of an autonomous MIR mobile robot platform similar to those that are currently under the current blood sample transport robots HUBOT and PRØVSEN, but with a top module with a robot arm and a shelf/cabinet module for safe storage of materials during transport. The robot platform itself with the robot arm is available as a standard basic product called Enabled Robotics, which is loaned to OUH by MIR for the project.

The robot will be able to insert racks of test tubes into the VITESTRO machines and remove and then send the filled test tubes to the Department of Clinical Biochemistry. The goal is that the department can significantly expand their opening hours for outpatient blood sampling with these technologies, but only have to allocate minimal staff for staffing outside the current opening hours.

A prototype has currently been developed for robot training of the workflow at the department, and active work is being done to develop a special gripper arm/hand for the robot so that it can handle the blood samples optimally and autonomously, as well as programming the control. Other activities in the project include studying integration with existing systems at the blood sampling outpatient clinic.

PARTNERS

• Department of Clinical Biochemistry, OUH
• MIR
• Enabled Robotics
• VITESTRO

FUNDING

The project has received funding from the Regional Innovation Fund.