VAPARO – Robot for vacuum-packing endoscopes

Today, the reprocessing of endoscopes and other surgical equipment takes place decentralised in the departments or close to the clinic, but at the new OUH, the reprocessing of endoscopes will be centralised under the Sterilisation Centre – as the first hospital in Denmark.

PROJECT PERIOD

Start: January 2026
End: October 2026

In the future, the clean endoscopes will therefore have to be transported over longer distances to the clinical departments via the hospital's crate transport system or dedicated elevators. To ensure cleanliness, sterility and traceability during transport, the endoscopes will have to be vacuum-packed in advance before transport. At the new OUH, it is expected that between 120 and 150 endoscopes will have to be packed daily.

This is a resource-intensive task, as manual packing of a single endoscope will take around 10 minutes and will weigh 3-5 kg when packed. Without automation, the task will require several full-time positions and involve a physically demanding working environment with many heavy and repetitive lifts. There are currently no commercial automation solutions for this specific task.

AIM

The project will develop a concept description for automated vacuum packaging as well as a functional Proof-of-Concept (PoC) prototype that can fully or partially automate the process.

The project will demonstrate how an automation solution can be integrated into the reprocessing process and facilitate - and potentially improve - the workflow.