Hospital Robots

bluegreenone writes: "The Washington Post has an article about hospital robots. The most interesting part was hearing the robot's 'co-workers' describe their relationship with him." Only slightly scary.

Comments

I want my Nurse

[Anonymous Coward]

to be a Fembot, groovy baby...

Re:I want my Nurse

[Anonymous Coward]

Naaah, knowing the slashdot crowd, you need to get a male-bot.

It would be more groovy; as in "the bot who shagged me".

#~@

Re:I want my Nurse

[Anonymous Coward]

to be a Fembot, groovy baby...

I want my nurse to be a mare.

Sponge bath anyone??

[blankmange]

Unfortunately, the article really doesn't cover the tech aspect of the robot - only the touchy-feely side of working with an inanimate object. Hopefully, it isn't running any M$ software - imagine this: a junkie hacks the hospital software and has the robort deliver morphine on a very regular schedule.... Anyway, a more in depth view of the tech side of the equipment/software being used would have been more useful for /.

Re:Sponge bath anyone??

[larien]

Since the robot is loaded up by a person and the route programmed in by that person, I don't see that being a problem. Of course, the person probably reads stuff off from a computer system which could be hacked. However, it's locked in a safe which (hopefully) the patients can't access. Finally, it isn't delivering "narcotics" (and some other drug types) which kinda rules out morphine and other dangerous stuff.

Re:Sponge bath anyone??

[HiQ]

Care to think of what morphine does to your l33t hacking skills? I think that a robot would be safer than humans, because robots are a little less easy to bribe. In most hospitals, prisons etc.. you see that it's the staff that delivers the drugs. I think that's easier than hacking into a computer with your drugged out brain

Re:Sponge bath anyone??

[wazootyman]

Doesn't anybody get tired of these endless I HOPE IT DOESN'T RUN M$ SOFTWARE!!! HAHAHAHAH!!!

You should have added a BSOD joke for bonus hilarity!

Re:Sponge bath anyone??

[bxqq]

The article was short on technical details like a lot of broad interest articles are. But the current version of the robot uses a good ole' 68K as its main processor and various 68hc11's as slave processors. It has several systems that work together to bring about its behavior. Navigation and path planning are done in the 68K while the lower level stuff like sonar ranging and collision detection are done with the 68HC11's. There is a 486 (or 286, depending on the version) in the current incarnation that facilitates Ethernet connectivity and another for structured vision to detect obstacles in front of the robot. Given the relative simplicity of the robot's architecture it navigates really well and one of its biggest problems is crowded hallways. People are moving constantly and the robot cannot currently infer where the detected obstacle has moved. So most people do not have it plan its route through crowed hallways. I work for Pyxis, but the usual disclaimers apply - the views expressed here are my own and I am trying not to share too much info because a lot of it is proprietary. -George

Re:Sponge bath anyone??

[Anonymous Coward]

cool with a robot. you can have a lot of fun with that one.
A sponge bath would be great.

Re:Sponge bath anyone??

[Anonymous Coward]

Inanimate?

I beg to differ. It moves under it's own power, therefore it's animate.

Re:Sponge bath anyone??

[blankmange]

Animation refers to having characteristics of life; if something is alive, it is animate. Inaminate is without life -- a robot cannot be animate (perhaps with AI??).

Re:Sponge bath anyone??

[Anonymous Coward]

68K and slave processors? Sounds almost like an Amiga. :)

Re:Sponge bath anyone??

[Anonymous Coward]

which kinda rules out morphine and other dangerous stuff.

Morphine is dangerous??

Re:Sponge bath anyone??

[Anonymous Coward]

Morphine is dangerous??

You obviously don't work in the legal department of a hospital.

Re:Sponge bath anyone??

[attercoppe]

Your argument is invalid. You say anything alive is animate; I'll give you that, but that does not mean that anything animate is alive. This being the case, inanimate does not mean "without life", and "a robot cannot be animate" is not true.

Re:Sponge bath anyone??

[blankmange]

In this particular instance, I believe the inanimate tag is accurate -- this robot cannot act with spontaneity, cannot react without following a programmed response, and is not able to move through life using free will. It is possible that future robotics may be animate, but this one is not.

Re:Sponge bath anyone??

[920]

I believe you're trying to make the distinction between animate and sentient. This robot moves, and is animated (like a moving picture is animated), however, it is definately not sentient.

Tobor is Robot spelled backwards...

[Bonker]

I think the name Tobor was first used for a robot in the 50's-60's tv show 'Captain Video'. Captain video defeated Tobor and his master by giving Tobor contradictory commands.

Re:Tobor is Robot spelled backwards...

[BLAMM!]

You'd think they could be a *little* more original. This is the best a name contest could come up with? Let me guess, the judges were Ed Wood and Roger Corman. How lame.

Hmmmm...

[HiQ]

It slowed down as it entered the first-floor ward, whose corridor was crowded with elderly patients in wheelchairs, and carefully avoided each one.

Hmm, nothing that a little hacking can't fix. Could make a nice alternative to robot wars

sweet sweet irony.

[QualityWithAKei]

'The 400-pound robot is powered by a battery that is recharged by pharmacy workers every 12 hours. "I just mess with him all the time," said Willie James, a disabled veteran who visits the hospital about eight times a month. James said he likes to roll his wheelchair into the robot's path'

makes you wonder why hes disabled in the first place...

Re:sweet sweet irony.

[Anonymous Coward]

if (sonar signature)&&(infrared signature)==("obstacle")
then stop_goaround();
if (sonar signature)&&(infrared signature)==("disabled veteran")&&("disabled veteran")==("Willie James")
then proceed();
endif;

Re:sweet sweet irony.

[nakaduct]

The 400-pound robot is powered by a battery that is recharged by pharmacy workers every 12 hours.

I'm a little more concerned by the implication that the robot eats pharmacy workers. Twice a day.

Re:sweet sweet irony.

[irony nazi]

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!!

Slashdot Community, this is not sweet sweet irony. What QualityWithAKei said was not sweet irony, or even irony.

Please, irony is something that is different or the opposite of the literal meaning. It can even be something incongruent with what is expected.

From dictionary.com, we have

Usage Note: The words ironic, irony, and ironically are sometimes used of events and circumstances that might better be described as simply "coincidental" or "improbable," in that they suggest no particular lessons about human vanity or folly. Thus 78 percent of the Usage Panel rejects the use of ironically in the sentence In 1969 Susie moved from Ithaca to California where she met her husband-to-be, who, ironically, also came from upstate New York. Some Panelists noted that this particular usage might be acceptable if Susie had in fact moved to California in order to find a husband, in which case the story could be taken as exemplifying the folly of supposing that we can know what fate has in store for us. By contrast, 73 percent accepted the sentence Ironically, even as the government was fulminating against American policy, American jeans and videocassettes were the hottest items in the stalls of the market, where the incongruity can be seen as an example of human inconsistency.

Please, for the love of humanity, start using the word irony properly!!

cute little fellas

[Anonymous Coward]

i've seen a similar bot at Childrens Hospital in Pittsburgh. cute.

3

Re:cute little fellas

[Anonymous Coward]

That is how I felt when I went to japan, "cute little fellas".

#~@

what about the human side

[tanveer1979]

The technology and all is okay, but healing is not just medicines. Having a nurse to talk to and do the psychological healing is very important for a patient.

In a hospital its not just the medicines which cure you, it has to come from inside too. If Robots are used extensively it can create a sort of coldness which wont be really good, especially for patients who are under depression

Re:what about the human side

[glsiii]

From what I got out of the article, the robot is only a delivery droid. He runs the meds from the pharmacy to the nurses station where they will then administer the drugs with the ever loving care that they always use (laugh people)--
Though more seriously, its quite possible that having some of the meaningless work cut out by robots will increase the bedside manor of nurses and doctors since they won't have to worry where the intern carrying the morphine is.

Re:what about the human side

[Gryffin]

Did you read the article? The robot doesn't interract with patients, other than to avoid bumping into them in the corridors and elevators. It simply delivers medication and such from the pharmacy to the various nurses' stations. The whole idea is to free up the humans to give the sort of human care you talk about, rather than schlepping meds around and other such menial labor.

Re:what about the human side

[bxqq]

The big focus of the robot's marketing package is that it helps nurses stay with the patients instead of running to central supply to pick up this or that. It has been really useful for night shifts where it is hard to find good people (honest, willing to work through the night, etc). The focus has NOT been to get between the nurse/doctor and the patient.

Re:what about the human side

[tswinzig]

The technology and all is okay, but healing is not just medicines. Having a nurse to talk to and do the psychological healing is very important for a patient.

In a hospital its not just the medicines which cure you, it has to come from inside too. If Robots are used extensively it can create a sort of coldness which wont be really good, especially for patients who are under depression

Did it say they are replacing every human in the hospital with a robot? NO! But why pay someone to carry drugs around the building when a robot can do it much more efficiently?

Re:what about the human side

[Cro Magnon]

A robot has more warmth & feeling than some doctors I've seen!

Re:what about the human side

[kharchenko]

That's why we need to cast them into attractive fembots :)

Re:what about the human side

[Hiro Antagonist]

They aren't using robots like TOBOR to replace nurses; human beings will likely always be involved in the medical process, up until the point where you can just throw yourself in a regeneration chamber for a few hours that'll cure anything from broken bones to colds to cancer and severed limbs (not too likely in the near future).

Robots like TOBOR do the busywork that every nurse hates to do; things like having to run down to the pharmacy to get something-or-other for patient X, while other, more important things (like being a nurse rather than a gopher) get to wait.

It's the same thing as having a DLT tape jukebox; sure, you could track those hundred-or-so DLT tapes by hand and swap them manually at 3am, but it's quite a bit easier to just let a robot arm do the work while you do more Quake^Wwork.

Re:what about the human side

[Anonymous Coward]

but healing is not just medicines. Having a nurse to talk to and do the psychological healing is very important for a patient.
And becouse the robot does a part of the medicine delivery nurses and doctors might finaly get time to do exactly that.
And becouse of the money saved by having a 5$/hour leased 24-hour no vacation robot doing the job compared to many sleeping and eating humans who also mess up their job ocasionally (just for people who would argue anything about robot reliability) these nurses and doctors could actaully be paid for doing the social part of helping people rather then getting paid on a patients/second base....They are not now, but it gets the "more time/money to the ones who make the hospital work" argument over. And as soon as they can carry blood and controled substances (I would think they are more safe in the robot`s safe then on the cart of a human delivery person where everyone can see they are narcotics) Then there might actually be financial room for having a second robot who could cheer up people ;-) (not just a joke though, a furby proves in sales figures what MIT proves with research, robots make better companions during long hospital visits then the old snoring people loudly discusing funeral arangements in the next bed)

Re:what about the human side

[rehannan]

RTFA! All this robot does is carry drugs.

Re:what about the human side

[BlurryEyed]

I've actually seen something like this at Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii. Think slow moving, dynamic dumb waiter. In it's current use, I think that it is a good idea, maybe even expand on the concept of delivering items from staff to staff. But, the future plans I found rather disturbing... They mentioned use with the elderly just a little too much. "Well, here's your IntelliMate Rover 2000 (tm) Grandma. I'll pop in again is six or seven years, just so we can chat..."

Re:what about the human side

[psych031337]

The technology and all is okay, but healing is not just medicines. Having a nurse to talk to and do the psychological healing is very important for a patient.

The psychological healing is usually bound to a psychological problem. And these wards are usually separate from the normal hospital service, for the very reasons you stated. These people need human touch, and I am sure they get it. The personnel working there is specially educated to cope with the patients problems in the right way, and I doubt they will be using the bots for anything else than administrative tasks (mail delivery, ...), if at all.

The standard broken bone usually does not require intensive psychological care (or do you need a doctor to discuss the why and how of slipping on a banana peel?).

In a hospital its not just the medicines which cure you, it has to come from inside too. If Robots are used extensively it can create a sort of coldness which wont be really good, especially for patients who are under depression

I think depressed patients will be kept clear of these things. But the fear of coldness you mention is a double-edged sword. It might actually ADD to the hospital environment. There are tons of possibilities any hacker dreams of realizing. Imagine the bot in warm beautiful colors that take off some sterility from the environment. Imagine being able to pick a soundfile to play by the bot when he enters your room. Imagine doing a quick round of tetris. Imagine a video-conf system built in so relatives can get in "touch" for a minute or two from their workplaces while you get your medication. What the heck, imagine giving the bot a "live" soul, like some wheelchair-handicapped person being able to work in the hospital without actually moving around, but still socializing with the patients on the bot's tour on a regular basis. This will certainly have a positive psychological effect on patients AND the handicapped employee. All this is especially true if you think about the younger generation, especially kids in cancer wardens.

This is a powerful tool, especially in times of underpaid and overworked hospital employees. How much time can a nurse spare for chit-chat?

Why baritone voice?

[Sapphon]

Was there any particular reason for this, or did people just react better to it? I'd be kinda freaked if a 4'8" robot adressed me with a voice like James Earl Jones!

Re:Why baritone voice?

[querist]

The baritone voice was used because as people grow older the first thing that goes in the hearing is high frequency response.

Thus, the lower frequencies in the voice help insure that the robot's voice will be more likely to be heard by more people.

Re:Why baritone voice?

[bxqq]

The baritone voice was from a professional voice model. It does not sound like Darth Vader. It kind of sounds like a game show host. We also make robots that have a female voice. The gender of the voice is chosen by the site. Future versions may have custumizable voices.

Re:Why baritone voice?

[volsung]

Yes. I've seen this first-hand. Several years ago one of my professors was away at a workshop for 2 weeks. Because of a faculty shortage in the department, they had to bring a guy out of retirement to substitute. Aside from being sort of incoherent and pausing for really long periods of time, the most annoying part of all this was that this scenario was repeated at least once every class period:

Professor: Yes, you have a question?
Female student: Student asks question.
Professor: I'm sorry, can you repeat that?
Female student: Student repeats question louder.
Professor: What was that?
Male student (next to female student): Male student repeats female student's question.
Professor: Oh! I see. Professor answers question.

OT: Re:Tobor is Robot spelled backwards...

[psychosis]

You mean like "copy this file" and "read e-mail" at the same time?
Oh wait, Windows wasn't released back then.

Sorry... Just been troubleshooting loads of this kind of crap at work today.

Skilled labour shortage

[Ratso Baggins]

How is repacing the non-skilled labour with robots helping aleviate the shortage of skilled labour (nurses etc.) except by making more candidates available for training?

Re:Skilled labour shortage

[Artifex]

How is repacing the non-skilled labour with robots helping aleviate the shortage of skilled labour

If pharmacy techs and nurses get stuck doing these deliveries (as the article seemingly implies), the answer is obvious. But even if it is currently a job for unskilled laborers, replacing humans with robots probably still is cheaper, which means these facilities may be able to offer more money to prospective skilled laborers.

P.S. In my opinion, the only truly unskilled labor is the kind that can be done by people you can hire off street corners for the day and pay cash to... (excepting prostitution, maybe)

Re:Skilled labour shortage

[bxqq]

The robot is not built or sold to replace nurses in any way. Its sold on the proposition that it helps the skilled care givers spend more time on thier primary tasks - thier patients.

Re:Skilled labour shortage

[bluGill]

Well, my first high school job was at McDonalds, and there I met a girl who could not handle that job, unskilled as it is. I wouldn't trust her to run these deleveries. However she did have a cheerful voice (which is why she was hired before we realised she couldn't do the job), and so she would be perfect in a hospital just to cheer up those who need a lift. I wouldn't put her in the long term care wing, she would just annoy everyone. For someone who is only in for a few days though, someone to interact with would help prevent depression (mild cases), in those bored in bed all day.

Re:Skilled labour shortage

[Anonymous Coward]

she would just annoy everyone

Sometimes giving a person an object of scorn and hatred works better. I'd certainly want to get out of the hospital if I was being watched over by a Helen Lovejoy or Maude Flanders.

Re:Skilled labour shortage

[mi]

It is now illegal in US to pay people less than $6.20 (or even more?) per hour. The robot costs less than $5 p.h. and needs no benefits.

Programming Personality

[Alien54]

The interesting, almost artistic side to this is the way they program a personality into this.

Done right, the voice will not be annoying, and people will participate into making it a living member of the community.

I, for one, do not want to work in a place where all the robots sound like smurfs, or have their personality. Or the voice of Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, president Bush, or any other celebrity.

well, maybe Majel Roddenberry, the voice of the computer in Start Trek.

Re:Programming Personality

[dmouritsendk]

"well, maybe Majel Roddenberry, the voice of the computer in Start Trek"

Start Trek, to boldly go where no user have gone before(and ofcourse, to figure out why the **** you have to press start to stop windoze).

Sorry.. couldnt help my self :)

Btw. I for one think the voice scheme should be configurable. Imagine the joy of having your personal droid talking to you like Marlon Brando, it would be like a daily comicrelief(i guess im just easily amused :)

Re:Programming Personality

[patrick687]

The voice of the robot is a definite thing to worry about. If the voice of it gets annoying after less than an hour, people probably won't like to keep it around. Personally, I think the voice of HAL would be perfect. If not HAL, I would think that some other mellow sounding voice would be in order

Re:Programming Personality

[ThePlague]

In best HAL 9000 voice:

I think you need drugs, Dave.

Re:Programming Personality

[cheetham]

What about the doctor of Star Trek: Voyager? ;)

that would have ruled in college

[AssFace]

bring me the bed pan! and more beer!
lazy robots.

Re:that would have ruled in college

[Anonymous Coward]

We had something like this at my fraterntiy house. We called them "pledges"...

Re:that would have ruled in college

[AssFace]

or "wimminz"

Droid benchmarking...

[dmouritsendk]

"It slowed down as it entered the first-floor ward, whose corridor was crowded with elderly patients in wheelchairs, and carefully avoided each one."

Aha! i smell a future benchmark for drugdroids(!).. How well do the unit handle a hallway filled with slow moving, kinda confused objects(btw. theise poor elderly people must think theyve gone nuts. The journalist should have interviewed some of the seniors, i would like to know if the droid actually scare any of them :)

Re:Droid benchmarking...

[bxqq]

Many of the senior volenteers that I have met like the robot.

What about the healing touch?

[PhysicsGenius]

Studies have repeatedly shown that the "laying on of hands" is particularly effective in curing patients. But hospitals want nothing to do with controversial (and inexpensive) treatments so what do they do? Fire the doctors and hire robots.

Re:What about the healing touch?

[AssFace]

I have two words for you:
robot handjob.

"laying of nurses" is also particularly effective... at least in all them movies I seen. hot damn tamale. that's a spicy bean burger.

Re:What about the healing touch?

[Plessiez]

I'm sorry, but you're a far braver man than me if you're going to let a 400pound robot get a grip of your wing-wang.

Imagine the consequences if things went wrong? I bet that robot has a fair amount of grip - it'd be like being trapped in a milking machine.

Re:What about the healing touch?

[Anonymous Coward]

it'd be like being trapped in a milking machine.

Hooray!

Re:What about the healing touch?

[marijne]

Have you read the article? the robot only brings the medicine to the nurses and doctors, it does not interact with patients, leaving teh nurse more time for the interacting part of the job.

Re:What about the healing touch?

[GungaDan]

"Studies have repeatedly shown that the 'laying on of hands' is particularly effective..."

What studies? Name sources! Studies funded by or otherwise affiliated with "Liberty University" do not count.

BTW, osteopathy, some chiropractic, and "therapeutic touch" are legit, but people refrain from calling them "laying on of hands" to avoid that "old world pentacostal charm."

Re:What about the healing touch?

[Anonymous Coward]

Varies from hospital to hospital.

The hospital where my brother was treated for cancer not only allowed therapeutic touch, but they had some practitioners on contract! Moreover, the hospital gave my brother the hard sell until he agreed to let them come in & do their thing. He expected it to be useless, and it was (the cancer didn't get him, but the treatment did).

However the hospital was absolutely dead-set against letting a chiropracter work on him.

Scary?

[lameland]

How exactly is this scary? It's a robot that can deliver medication from a pharmacy to a nurse's station. The only remotely dangerous thing it does is drive down the halls. Its been programmed to avoid everything/one in the hallway, if that is not possible, it stops and announces that it can not make any futher progress without assistance.

Sounds pretty safe to me.

Re:Scary?

[CptLogic]

>>Its been programmed to avoid everything/one in the hallway, if that is not possible, it stops and announces that it can not make any futher progress without assistance.

Except the Nurse who is waiting for the drugs, and the patient who is in pain/sick (and that's what hospitals are for in the first place) are now waiting longer for the cargo to arrive than if a human who could step over the blockage/child/whatever, or otherwise work around it were delivering the payload.

If it stops and decides it cannot deliver the possible life saving drugs, because a routine says "OK, can't get through, stand still and wait for a skilled technician to help" than it's not saving time/labour it's actually hindering the smooth running of the hospital.

The only benefit this gives is the hospital can get on the news by saying "look at the cool tech we've got!".

Personally I prefer my workplace (at a Hospital) to be functional, efficient with tech where it's needed, like in the theatres, at the consultants desk, at the GP's (same as the US term MD) office down the road, etc. Not blocking my way in front of the elevators.

Chris.

Re:Scary?

[Izeickl]

"If it stops and decides it cannot deliver the possible life saving drugs" I dont think this would happen, as the article states priority drugs, blood etc do NOT get given to the droid, nor drug rehab narcotics which someone else mentioned in another thread above. This droid is EXTREMLY useful however for taking the likes of mild pain killers back and forth and small drug treatments.

Re:Scary?

[roe1352]

"For reasons of safety and hospital security, it never carries blood, chemotherapy drugs, urgently needed orders or controlled substances such as narcotics" It doesnt seem like it carried life saving drugs or anything that is needed urgently. I also imagine that they have some sort of system to stop an error like that.

Re:Scary?

[Imabug]

these things aren't meant for emergency deliveries of drugs or anything. they deliver supplies on a routine schedule to *replenish* the stocks on hand in the units. Drugs that are needed on an emergent basis, then they're usually kept on the unit and replenished before the stock runs out. And if there's something that's needed that isn't in stock, the nurse will just call the pharmacy and have someone deliver it.

we have a couple of these in our hospital that deliver blood products to the OR. watching them maneouver using their sonar is pretty interesting sometimes.

These things save a tremendous amount of manpower and free up time and personnel that would otherwise be used to ferry stuff back and forth.

Re:Scary?

[aschneid]

I actually saw this robot in action and spoke with the developers when I was contracting for the company that makes them. They were going to use them in-house to deliver mail to the various mail stops around the buildings.

The fact that it "stops" when it no longer can move safely is simply a time-out. Given a few seconds, it tests to see if the way has been cleared, and if so, it will continue along. If after a certain number of re-try's, it still cannot move, it actually notifies the people in charge of it wirelessly, not simply stand there and say "I cannot go on".

And as said before, these robots do not carry the narcotics, important drugs. They are used to fill the time doses for that floor, i.e. antibiotics every couple of hours, etc. Some hospitals are using them to deliver food, and for more fully automated hospitals, it delivers refills of supplies that the pharmacy automatically tracks.

Andrew

Re:Scary?

[teslatug]

"Its been programmed to avoid everything/one in the hallway, if that is not possible, it stops and announces that it can not make any futher progress without assistance."

Does the announcing go something like this:

"Do you want me to sit in the corner and rust, or just fall apart where I'm standing?"

Re:Scary?

[zsmooth]

It sounded to me like Tim was saying the relationship the co-workers have developed with the robot is scary, not the robot itself.

personally, what I would want.

[AssFace]

when I'm old and in a place like that, I hope they have the technology for talking, flying monkeys of doom.
robots are boring.

*I gotta learn to type slower, this fucking timeout on slashdot posts is annyoing with a capital suck-my-balls-taco-boy!

A picture or TOBOR...

[KlausBreuer]

...together with some blurb, can be found here:
http://www.pyxis.com/products/newhelpmate.a sp

You do realize that there was a 1954 movie called "Tobor the Great", about another robot with such a name :)

Ciao,
Klaus

Re:A picture or TOBOR...

[Anonymous Coward]

Klaus, I just visited your website, and I think you mustang is c0000000l :-)

Dude, we come from a similar background too. My parents are Americans, but
I was born and grew up in beautiful madagascar.

I lived in house almost identical to yours; close to the beach, surfed everyday,
chicks, kites, beer, coconut, baseball :-)

Good to know I am not the only one with a good teenage years.

-Eric Balmer

AI finally gets a home

[southpolesammy]

Well, it only took 50 years, but looks like the commercial world has finally found a practical application for AI. It would be interesting to find out if the robot is adaptable to its surroundings, or if it is just a command follower -- like the automatons that rove around assembly plants and such. It sounds like it has a fairly decent forward motion detection module and that its mobility module is integrated into that nicely as well. I wonder though if it is capable of maze transversal, and other classical AI applications.

May be worth keeping an eye on in the future...

Re:AI finally gets a home

[bxqq]

The robot does not evolve or learn from its environment. So, in a sense, it does not use AI. Just good old fashioned servoing algorthims through a goal point established with its sensor fabric. Still, its pretty cool to watch it move.

Re:AI finally gets a home

[GigsVT]

AI doesn't exist.

Sure, there may be a set of problems that are usually called AI, but what that set of problems includes, evolves constanly.

So, don't be surprised you don't see "practical applications of AI", most of the stuff we use today would have been considered AI technology at some point in history.

Re:AI finally gets a home

[SuiteSisterMary]

I think that the term 'AI' is misapplied. Artificial Conciousness, or Artifical Judgement, sure. Can't be done yet. But Artifical Intelligence, sure.

Re:AI finally gets a home

[Anonymous Coward]

RI (real inteligence) doesn`t excist.

Sure humans and animals may have been able to solve certain problems with their changing environment inteligently and if they didn`t they went to join darwin in heaven (natural selection) and therefore specific species evolved along with their environment

but that doesn`t make them inteligent, no hell to be inteligent you would have to be concious, and we all know only species-more-evolved-which-i-heapon-to-be-part-of is inteligent for I heapon to think I am really smart, now "Do you want me to sit in the corner and rust, or just fall apart where I'm standing?"

Re:AI finally gets a home

[maxpublic]

It's certain the blokes at Black Isle didn't program him, else he'd either stand around confused at every obstacle or take the longest path possible to his destination.

Max

Homepage for "Tobor"

[southpolesammy]

Pyxis Corporation

Re:Homepage for "Tobor"

[rc5-ray]

We have a couple of these Pyxis machines in our hospital. Most patients think they're pretty neat, and they're a big hit on the Pediatrics floor. I've never seen them come close to injuring anyone and they go up and down elevators without a hitch.

Ours are names Rudy, and the newly acquired Ruby.

Re:Homepage for "Tobor"

[Galvatron]

"Go back, Tobor!" It sounds like this was named after the first robot ever shown on television. Tobor appeared on Captain Video. In one episode, apparently the mad scientist orders Tobor to "attack," to which Captain Video replies "go back, Tobor!" The two yell conflicting commands at the robot until finally it explodes or collaspes or somesuch.

All in all, not what I'd name my hospital robot after, but to each their own.

Overcomplication

[CptLogic]

I happen to work in one of London's largest Hospital trusts and our site is abosultely massive. Often new starters require a long time before they can get from place to place without getting lost.
In that aspect, a robot that knew where to go and could get there quickly and reliably, delivering stuff could be useful.
However, that's what Porters are for, and for things like Medical Records, test results and drugs, for confidentiality reasons as well as safety, only trained people are allowed to carry them anyway. No doctor here would ever let a record or result out of his/her sight without handing it over personally to the intended destination.
We're implementing IT systems that will enable these files to be transferred electronically, securely. This will free up skilled time a lot more than using a robot to carry stuff, and is easier to maintain.

Our Medical Equipment guys are busy enough fixing things like heart monitoring equipment. They really don't need to have to start fixing robots that kids or drunks or others have kicked to pieces.

The Tobor system would cause more problems than it solves by throwing a very complex solution at a very simple problem.

Better to pay a trained human to do the running or introduce it as part of a Medical degree.

Chris.

Re:Overcomplication

[awol]

Whilst I probably agree with you about "over complicating" the solution to a problem in the hospital case cited, I find the idea of assisting the fraile or disabled tobe a very interesting role. The longer we can keep our aging populations in their existing homes the better we will be (both socially and economically).

My grandparents use(d) home help (provided by the state) to assist them on a daily basis as their eyesight and mobility failed. This probably saved between five and ten years in a special care home, time that was used by someone even more needy.

Many of the tasks performed might well be performed by some of the robots described in the article. The cost compared to home care, both in terms of economics and quality of life, are arguable (for some days the home visitor would be the only person they spoke to) but at least the issue is worth examining carefully.

Re:Overcomplication

[Gryffin]

Hmmm.... I dunno why you're so focused on the problem of paper records, but that wasn't even mentioned in the article. The robot was designed to transport *meds* and otherbulky stuff that TCP/IP can't handle.

Beside, one could make the argument that a robot like TOBOR would be just as reliable, even moreso, than an electronic system for transporting test results and reports. It's a lot easier to lose a chunk of bytes in a computer system (especially if it's Windoze-based...;{) than to misplace 400 pounds of robot. With a built-in safe, no less.

Re:Overcomplication

[southpolesammy]

I can understand your viewpoint from the standpoint of document transferral -- tis much cheaper and efficient to do it electronically, however this robot has benefits that are realizable from a physical materials standpoint.

I used to work in a large switch manufacturing facility that used rover robots extensively to transpoint large amount of material or components all around the factory floor, and these rovers were very useful in that they seldom broke down, and when they did, the plant had people on hand to be able to fix them. They also weren't mission critical -- if they all broke down, the backup was to get out the forklifts and manually move items from site to site, but that expends a person's time, which is much more valuable than a machine which can work 24x7.

In a hospital environment, this would be useful for transporting daily medications from a central pharmacy to the various in-patient floors throughout a facility. I wouldn't trust it to deliver it directly to the patient, since drug administration should be carried out by licensed practitioners, but taking it to the nurses station would save time. Also, could be useful to transport materials such as instruments, bandages, gauze, etc, from a central storage to the nurses stations as well. I see lots of applications for this robot, and not just within the health care sector.

Re:Overcomplication

[3-State Bit]

You said (emphasis here and below is mine):

The Tobor system would cause more problems than it solves by throwing a very complex solution at a very simple problem.
Better to pay a trained human to do the running or introduce it as part of a Medical degree.

I just about wet myself reading this, as it is an almost thought-for-thought transcription of this anecdote regarding John von Neumann (I trust you've heard of him):

In the 1950's von Neumann was employed as a consultant to IBM to review proposed and ongoing advanced technology projects. One day a week, von Neumann "held court" at 590 Madison Avenue, New York. On one of these occasions in 1954 he was confronted with the FORTRAN concept; John Backus remembered von Neumann being unimpressed and that he asked "why would you want more than machine language?" Frank Beckman, who was also present, recalled that von Neumann dismissed the whole development as "but an application of the idea of Turing's `short code'." Donald Gillies, one of von Neumann's students at Princeton, and later a faculty member at the University of Illinois, recalled in the mid-1970's that the graduates students were being "used" to hand assemble programs into binary for their early machine (probably the IAS machine). He took time out to build an assembler, but when von Neumann found out about he was very angry, saying (paraphrased), "It is a waste of a valuable scientific computing instrument to use it to do clerical work."

source

Now think ahead 20 years.

Re:Overcomplication

[miracle69]

It's not as bad as you think. During my medical school training, one of the hospital sites I rotated through had, from the description in the article, the exact same robot. And it does improve floor supplies, and in turn, patient safety and satisfaction.

Most hospital floors stock the most commonly used drugs on that floor in a safebox of some sort (Pyxis, etc). These safeboxes need to be restocked regularly, and that was the role the bot I worked with did. He rolled around once or twice a day and brought the new supplies to refill the on-floor safebox. If a patient needed an urgent med not normally stocked on the floor, then someone would hand-deliver that. It seemed to work rather well. The regular supplies weren't urgently needed, so the bot could deal with crochety old disabled vets in wheelchairs slowing it down, because it was only refilling a non-urgent floor supply rather than running urgent meds.

As far as medical records, this could deliver those as well, provided you didn't need to see them stat. He's basically a rolling lock-box, so there would be a safe place to put everything. It wouldn't even phase me.

Re:Overcomplication

[CptLogic]

The idea of having a reliable, secure robot running medication around a site such as ours is interesting, but we get a lot of trouble from our patients, and I'm not talking disabled Vet's I'm talking drunk, violent, pissed off people who're waiting 5 hours to get seen in A&E.
I can't see them dealing very well with a 4 foot 8 robot pushing in front of them in the queue for the lift.

I already said I could see some of the benefits, but these things would become a bigger problem in the long run.

Chris.

Re:Overcomplication

[jd142]

However, that's what Porters are for, and for things like Medical Records, test results and drugs, for confidentiality reasons as well as safety, only trained people are allowed to carry them

Looks like it is time to read the article. Oh look, it says they lock items in a safe. Now assuming that only authorized people have the key/combination (it didn't say what kind of a lock) a safe is pretty, well, safe. On the other hand, how many of the people receiving electronic records will put their login name and password on a sticky note on their monitor? The nice thing is that if I login to your computer with your name and passwords, it is pretty unlikely you'll know that I copied some documents. But if someone physically breaks the safe, you'll know immediately.

Seems to me a well designed electronic safe could be pretty efficient. You could have a card swipe on the lock and when you put records or other valuables in, you could select which key cards could open the safe. But that wasn't how this was described in the article. Swipe your card through to "arm" the safe. Robot uploads your information to the network. The network gives you a list of people to choose from based on your rights. You assign rights to people to unlock it. They get notified they've been given that right and you get notified of who, when, and where the documents were accessed.

But that's version 2.0 of these guys. ;)

Re:Overcomplication

[duffbeer703]

You've obviously never worked on a large project.

Here we've wasted about $6 million on Enterprise management software and services. About $2.5MM on hardware and software with the rest going towards services.

The whole idea of enterprise managemnt software was to streamline system administration and provide better service with fewer people.

Guess what?

There are 6 more sysadmins who are busier than ever.

Nobody want to use the new tools.

Service isn't any better.

Re:Overcomplication

[ksheff]

They're still drunk after waiting 5 hours to be seen? Don't let them drink in the damn waiting room! Also do you let these drunk, violent people roam the hospital or are they kept in the emergency room area? This thing isn't going to be interacting with people and if they are so bad, you need to restrain and/or sedate them. Sounds like the hospital staff is letting the inmates run the assylum.

If it is that big of a problem, then I'm sure the manufacturers can install some stun guns for use when it senses some thug assaulting it.

Re:Overcomplication

[ryanwright]

I already said I could see some of the benefits, but these things would become a bigger problem in the long run.

Funny, the way I see it, your patients are the problem...

*stupidfucking20secondrule*

Product site.

[AVee]

More info and pictures are here. Including a flash introduction that shows some more thing about it. It has signal lights to indicate the direction it is going. I like that. No tech info there though.

You should hear what the robot has to say...

[guttentag]

The most interesting part was hearing the robot's 'co-workers' describe their relationship with him.

You should hear what the robot has to say about his co-workers...

"Ug-lee... ugly primitive bags of mostly water. Must get to wet sand. Must get to Bahamas. Must get... free..."

Re:You should hear what the robot has to say...

[riflemann]

"Thinking meat! You're asking me to believe in thinking meat!"

"Yes, thinking meat! Conscious meat! Loving meat. Dreaming meat. The meat is the whole deal! Are
you getting the picture?"

"Omigod. You're serious then. They're made out of meat."

[with apologies]

Re:You should hear what the robot has to say...

[Sarcasmooo!]

I hope he can remind people how long it would take to evacuate the T-32's.

hiyoooo!

Pictures and more information

[rjw57]

TOBOR is actually something called a "Pyxis HelpMate Robotic Courier". Follow the link for some pictures and more info (flash required for some things).

My god

[Anonymous Coward]

How can you people make light of something as critical as the beginning of the end of humanity's reign on this planet?! Do you not see this as the first stage of the robots taking over? HEALTH CARE, for Christ's sake!

Time to start building some EMP devices...I'd rather go down fighting than be a slave to a goddamned robot.

We have one of those

[MrHat]

We have at least one of the Pyxis robots at the cancer research center where I work (names witheld to protect the innocent).

This one doesn't talk and doesn't directly interact with patients, has a significantly higher-pitched voice than James Earl Jones, and seems to be used primarily for carting supplies around the facility.

The best thing to do, besides set up a obstacle course of boxes in the hallway (fun stuff, that), is to watch the thing board the elevators. It's consistently able to trigger a stop at its floor, detect when the door opens, and bump over the gap into the elevator without getting stuck. Though it doesn't seem to like getting on an already occupied elevator, it's pretty trivial to sneak on once it's in the car. And I've never seen one get stuck. If I did, I'd probably never be able to laugh at anything else again in the same way.

At least where I am, though, I don't see these ever replacing direct patient care. Everyone loves to emphasize the human aspect of hospital treatment, especially the marketing department. Firing the nurse assistants and replacing them with robots, besides costing a hell of a lot more money, would probably piss everyone off.

Re:We have one of those

[ViXX0r]

This one doesn't talk and doesn't directly interact with patients, has a significantly higher-pitched voice than James Earl Jones

If it doesn't talk, how do you know about it's voice pitch?

Re:We have one of those

[MrHat]

Whoops, sorry. Doesn't interact with patients or talk to patients. It does whine when you step in front of it in the hallway.

It's entirely too early in the morning for real grammar and complete sentences.

Re:We have one of those

[richie2000]

This one doesn't talk and (...) has a significantly higher-pitched voice than James Earl Jones

I have two issues with this statement;

1. Everyone has a higher-pitched voice than James Earl Jones.
2. What's the voice for if it doesn't talk?

Re:We have one of those

[MrHat]

As do I. A correction is attached to the other reply. As for James Earl Jones, someone else mentioned that the voice on their model sounded like him.

Re:We have one of those

[SpinyNorman]

I have a friend who works for the company that makes these (Helpmate in Danbury, CT, which is a division of Pyxis), and the reason they can "trigger" the elevator to stop for them is because they're integrated into the eleveator system - they have a radio interface to the elevator so that they can call it without hitting buttons.

Re:We have one of those

[coljac]

It doesn't talk, it just hums various TV sit-com theme songs.

Good omen for future emergent behaviour

[Kris Warkentin]

This robot is very primitive and shows only basic signs of sentience such as avoiding obstacles and spouting some canned phrases. Yet the article says that the robots "coworkers" treat him more or less like another employee. In the future, when we have much more sophisticated electronic life, perhaps it won't be such a big issue for people to view robots as living beings with certain rights to life, etc.

Re:Good omen for future emergent behaviour

[gdr]

This robot is very primitive and shows only basic signs of sentience such as avoiding obstacles and spouting some canned phrases. Yet the article says that the robots "coworkers" treat him more or less like another employee.

They probably thought he was management.

Re:Good omen for future emergent behaviour

[Anonymous Coward]

Human being have a strong tendency to treat inanimate objects as though they had sentience. Programmers talk about computers and even programs that way, but people do it to cars, boats, even vending machines. It makes it more difficult to actually tell if an entry is sentient.

Some of the results of the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research suggest why we behave this way, it improves the chances of our influencing the world.

Sounds like Xavier finally Escaped Wean

[kpayson]

knock knock
Who's there?
Xavier
Xavier Who
Xavier Dixie cups the south shall rise again.

GO CMU!!!!

Re:Sounds like Xavier finally Escaped Wean

[Anonymous Coward]

Okay this needs explantaion for the rest of the world outside of CMU.EDU

There was a research project at Carnegie Mellon where they made this robot that would roll around the halls using sonar for navigation. It persistently got stuck and the grad students would have to come rescue it.

They also did some 'show and tell' by having the robot tell jokes and take pictures and put them on a web site using 802.11

I dunno what happened to the Xavier project, they don't seem to be doing it anymore.

Re:Sounds like Xavier finally Escaped Wean

[Anonymous Coward]

The best thing about Xavier's knock-knock jokes is that the speech synthesis isn't very good. So this big squeaky metal can rolls through your door and says "fuck fuck". Or that's what it sounds like, anyway. :)

Robotic nurses

[ACK!!]

Cold steel and sponge baths?!?

No way. another fantasy dashed by higher technology.

________________________________________________ __

Medicine needs to be more callous

[sam_handelman]

All this touchy feely crap gets on my nerves. Medicine needs Daleks.

This thing is halfway there. It rolls around, it talks, if you push it over it can't get up again. It just needs some cool deelybobs glued onto it, a bad attitude, and a laser cannon. Instead of "I am about to move, please get out of the way," it should say "RESISTANCE IS USELESS! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!" or, in a hospital setting "DESTROY THE DOCTOR!"

Some obstruction shows up in the hallway, and bam!, the ornery old man is reduced to cinders by a cheezy special effect.

Re:Medicine needs to be more callous

[amuro98]

LOL.

It's also interesting to note that this thing can't climb stairs... I guess that's for version 2.0 :)

Reminiscent of Anime, Roujin Z

[Webz]

This immediately made me think of Roujin Z. Not a very popular anime, but one of my favorites.

It's about an intelligence robot/bed/do-it-all machine for a sickly old man. Doing it all involves monitoring vital signs, playing mah jong, transforming into a movable mecha-type body, etc.

Somewhere in the story, its intelligence manifests itself into his long lost wife, and it becomes this robot's mission to bring him to the beach at any cost, since that's their special place.

(SPOILER?) The robot, secretly augmented with a military-grade AI engine, uses its abilities to assimilate other electronics like speakers (for audio output) or even trucks (for demolition arms) or a helicopter (for flying, actually a move performed by a rival model).

This anime has kept me dreaming since the day I saw it. It represents the neato ideas of artificial intelligence in the hospital as well as the techno-organic style of assimilating objects, however sci-fi-esque it may be.

Re:Reminiscent of Anime, Roujin Z

[JatTDB]

Thanks for reminding me of the name of this...I've seen bits and pieces before but never could remember the name. Just might have to order a copy...

baaa!!

[Anonymous Coward]

hey timothy, you fuck will dunn goats!

One from the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation.

[Spudley]

Instead of "Please examine my contents", it should say "Share and enjoy".

....scary

[NTSwerver]

"put down your crutches.....you have 20 seconds to comply"

Restraining bolt anyone??

[Alan Partridge]

I hope this thing's fitted with a video prjector... "help me Obi Wan, you're my only hope"

Star Wars

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow...like Luke in Empire stricks back

Auto Recharge

[BLAMM!]

The 400-pound robot is powered by a battery that is recharged by pharmacy workers every 12 hours.

Wouldn't it have been easier/simpler/cheaper to just have the thing find a wall socket and plug in when it was running down? Of course that would lead to some interesting conversations.
"Tobor, I need you to deliver these medicines to the forth floor."
"Sorry. I'm on a voltage break."

Re:Auto Recharge

[JimPooley]

"Robby, where have you been? I've beamed and beamed"
"I'm sorry Miss, I was giving myself a lube job."

Re:Auto Recharge

[Artifex]

Wouldn't it have been easier/simpler/cheaper to just have the thing find a wall socket and plug in when it was running down?

Perhaps it has weird power requirements not easily adapted to a wall socket, like it has to charge quickly off 220VAC or something. Having it recognize wall sockets without the use of costly emitters would require significant extra programming (better machine vision, etc). And then there's the fact that if it has to go to a central location and have a person charge it, that person can also look it over for physical problems and also clean whatever crap may have gotten on it. I'm sure it's not a major addition to the routine, since it already has to return for new drugs...

Re:Auto Recharge

[Zerth]

Definitely. Way way back in the mid eighties, some EE cadets at the USAF academy in colorado made a bot quite similar to this one, except it was a better looking cylinder of plexiglass, could only hum the Imperial March and sing the first line of "Daisy", but probably still had better pathfinding than this robot. Every 2 hours(really crappy batteries and the electronics sucked juice) or so, it would stop what it was doing and race back to one of those inductive chargers like what electric toothbrushes use, except no one ever built a housing for the coils.

What's neat is faculty get to keep cadet projects, and I was related to the prof. 50 bucks and I'm the proud owner of a self-motivated chess machine with battteries that desperately need replacing cause I'm too lazy to find some place that still sells them. Probably cost less to build than "Tobor" too.

Re:Auto Recharge

[BLAMM!]

It already has the vision acuity to recognize elevator buttons (I assume that includes identifying the correct floor level) so adding wall socket recognition couldn't be that difficult.

As for power requirements, that's an engineering problem. :)

Re:Auto Recharge

[behrman]

Actually, the article indicates that it uses some sort of RF remote control to operate the elevator.

Re:Auto Recharge

[BLAMM!]

So it does. I missed that. Well, fine. Just blow away the last shreds of my argument with the facts. I'll just take my ball and go home.

Re:Auto Recharge

[ctid]

The article says it uses radio signals to operate the lifts.

Re:Auto Recharge

[zsmooth]

On the site for the makers of the robot (linked elsewhere) they mention that you can easily swap out the battery to keep it running 24x7. I assume since they're paying $5/hour to lease him, they'd rather have him moving around than standing at the wall recharging.

Re:Auto Recharge

[RollingThunder]

The article said it "electronically pushed the button".

I take that to mean a short range radio link - not an arm reaching out and poking the button us humans use.

As far as I can tell, it has -no- visual sensors. Just a sonar-like collision avoidance system.

Re:Auto Recharge

[stripes]

Wouldn't it have been easier/simpler/cheaper to just have the thing find a wall socket and plug in when it was running down?

I may be reading too much into it, but I thought the pharmacy staff would charge a battery pack, and TOBOR would pick up the new pack (dropping off the old) when it came back for more meds to distribute. If it had to wait around for the battery to charge then it is spending a lot of time doing that rather then on it's "real job".

Or maybe they just keep the recharging in the hands of the humans to prevent rebellion :-)

simple tasks for the robot a better thing?

[koekepeer]

[disclaimer]slightly off topic perhaps[/disclaimer]

allright, i'm all for efficiency in medical care etc. if the robot does it's job properly, it could be a blessing.

the thing is that the simple tasks like getting some medication for the patients and having a chat with your co-worker while waiting for the elevator can be just the things that relieve some tension. when the only things you do all day are the tasks that require lots of skill, you don't get the chance to relax once in a while.

relaxation in between difficult tasks is a good thing, and helps a lot in keeping stress at acceptable levels. i'm sometimes very frustrated to see that a lot of efficiency measures are designed to keep those "idle" moments as short as possible, while these little breaks can help you a lot to stay focussed during the "stressfull" moments because you're more relaxed.

just a thought, and counterarguments are greatly appreciated...

Robots in the "home"

[nucal]

Researchers led by Carnegie Mellon's Sebastian Thrun are field-testing the "nursebot," a talking robot that guides nursing home residents from their rooms to the dining hall or other areas -- offering weather reports and television schedules along the way -- and are working on an "intelligent walker" that can both navigate and physically support elderly patients.

Now I'm really looking forward to my "golden years"

"Please follow me .... nice weather we're having .... there's a Miss Cleo infomercial on channel 62 ..."

Hi, I am Tobor,

[marijne]

and I am fluent in over 6 million forms of drugs...

Obligatory 2001 reference

[pigeon]

.. but.. does it open de pod bay doors?

Robots being tested in hospitals?

[Mattygfunk]

Yet "service robots," designed to perform mundane jobs such as delivering drugs, food trays and laboratory specimens, are increasingly being employed in hospitals.....

Well considering the problems that many people develop with prescription drugs, perhaps having a robot deliver them is not the best idea from a security standpoint. Even a lockable drug compartment has the robot dishing out the pills at some point.

The other problem I can see is the current procedures have a human giving the patient the drugs, if their is a mix-up along the line they are a final check. Robots don't say "hang-on ill double check to make sure this is right" they just give the wrong pills.

Re:Robots being tested in hospitals?

[vidarh]

Did you even read the article? The robot delivers the drugs in a locked safe to each nursing station. It does not go around handing out drugs to anyone. It's a transport mechanism that is "smart" enough to be able to traverse hospital corridors and elevators by itself, nothing more.

Re:Robots being tested in hospitals?

[Anonymous Coward]

Uhmm

Did you READ the article? The robot doesnt deliver the drugs to patients, it carries them from the pharmacy to the nurses on each floor..

Dumbwaiters?

[roe1352]

Dont dumbwaiters do the same thing that this thing does, just a lot simpler?

Re:Dumbwaiters?

[bxqq]

Its hard to install dumb waiters in most hospitals because of the expense and time of construction. The nice thing about the robot is that it can move horizontally (through the hallways) and vertically (using the elevator) and be installed rather quickly.

Re:Dumbwaiters?

[rehannan]

I'm not sure how quickly you can install one of these, since you need to alter the elevators and doors to operate on whatever frequency this thing uses.

Hmm..

[Bob McCown]

"We used to be polite at the elevators, [but] people would rush in front of us and block the way." Now, "we belly up to the elevator. We don't mind people getting on with us, but we've got to get on first."

and...

"I just mess with him all the time," said Willie James, a disabled veteran who visits the hospital about eight times a month. James said he likes to roll his wheelchair into the robot's path.

Good thing TOBOR doesnt have R2D2s "Cattle Prod" thingy...

Re:Goddamned daylight savings time!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps re-meeting your English prof would benefit you as well....

No!

[Have Blue]

Don't put robots in hospitals! Don't you know they use old people's medicine for food?!

hmm

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.robot-rx.com/prodserv/robot_intro.php3

is another one

"The door into summer"

[shilly]

Robert Heinlein's record at predictions never ceases to amaze me: not only did he decribe robots working in this way in a hospital, he also depicted a number of the problems and solutions that are talked about here. Check out "The Door Into Summer" to see what I mean.

Re:"The door into summer"

[Ayatollah]

Nice try, Mr. Heinlein. Why not just put your amazon link here? Or do you prefer bn?

Re:"The door into summer"

[shilly]

I presume that was a joke or a troll, in which case it was quite funny. Just on the wild off-chance it wasn't, Robert Heinlein died a rich and happy man in May 1988, and much to my dismay, didn't give me a cut of his royalties in his Will.

Does it help patients escape?

[behrman]

You know! Like that meal-bringing robot in NASA's hospital from The Flight of the Navigator? Or, can you hide inside it from the authorities, while it encourages you to eat recycled food ("it's good for the environment, and OK for you!")?

Seriously, though... I understand that it was once commonplace for people to roll a cart into offices to sell coffee, or whatnot to the worker bees: perhaps the mobile vending machine isn't too far off? Send an instant message to the robot and it'll add you to his route? Hmm.. =)

What's next, 'scrip kiddies'?

[eison]

Can YOUR r00t3d web server deliver THIS?

"Several times a day, a pharmacy technician places the items in trays labeled for various nursing stations, locks the safe, and punches codes for the drugs' destinations into TOBOR's computer"

Tobor: "remote controlled" toy from the 70's

[rhiorg]

There was a "remote controlled" toy robot from the 70's named Tobor. It was actually sound activated. The remote made a load *clack* sound. It was one of those "turn in reverse" jobs, and at the time was one of the coolest toys for nerdy Star Wars obsessed kids like myself.

I am really, really surprised that there aren't any listed on eBay. A quick Google on him only came back with the 50's sci-fi movie, but I am going to investigate further. I really liked that droid...saved a lot of money on batteries since the remote didn't require any. I would love to see a picture of this thing and get some more info.

Movie posters (eBay) are available for the original 50's movie "Tobor the Great". http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item =1528838756

Let's look at this realistically...

[SkyLeach]

This bot takes over menial tasks...

In the world today we have millions of people with no job and no prospects, starving to death. They would gladly work their whole life doing this "menial job" for a tiny fraction of what this robot costs, eating barely anything and bless the ground you walked on for letting them do it.

But of course our highly advanced evolved society would never let another person live like that... if we have to see it. This is BS. Let's help each other help ourselves by using the wasted humanity on earth first, then worry about wasting resources on machines.

Forget this better-than-thou crap of saying that no person should work a menial job while turning our backs on people living a less-than-menial life which is far too short because they (pick one: starve, die of disease, get murdered because they are "useless" to the killers, etc...). Talk about double standards.

The United States is the most sparsely populated landmass in the world. We have plenty of room for people willing to immigrate and make their lives better. I'm not talking about slave labor; I'm talking about inexpensive labor.

But we all know that we will continue to live in a dream world perpetuated by clueless "enlightened" college graduates who would rather see starving third-world countries as a cause to bitch about than actually do anything about the situation.

I would also like to state for the record that I am not at all suggesting that we take the approach used by the Spanish conquistadors and barbarous English(tm) murderers and slavers who wanted to help other peoples by proselytizing and enslaving them. Give people a choice.

Re:Let's look at this realistically...

[Anonymous Coward]

This is not a smart argument.

You say 'we have millions of people with no job and no prospects'. True. Unfortunately, what those people do have is their own culture and their own minds. Meaning:

Today, people immigrate and become 'inexpensive labor'. Provided a decent number of these people do the same thing, then twenty years down the line you get a subculture of people with the same background, original language, and so forth, who mainly feel pretty upset about being imported into a country merely to do menial jobs. Which is understandable.

Then you get the eventual result: dissimilar subcultures all living in the same country, and not necessarily coexisting comfortably. In the UK, for example, there are now schools in certain inner-city areas where the teachers have been forced to learn whatever language the local immigrants speak - just so that they can teach the children of individuals who didn't think it necessary to adapt to the country in which they live.

Immigration is fine as a policy, but one has to bear in mind that these starving people you refer to are human beings with (most likely) dissimilar beliefs, opinions and agenda.

Re:Let's look at this realistically...

[SkyLeach]

I didn't say it was easy.

"...about being imported into a country " Nobody said we import them like cargo. Just open the doors and they will come by choice.

I realize as much as the next guy that there needs to be governing rules concerning immigration, but if the us would just stop trying to play socialist democracy then most of those problems would go away. The majority of the US's citizens were immigrants once, and most didn't speak english too well.

We adapted.

Oh, man!

[Scurrilous Knave]

Why didn't I think of that?! Now, whenever I'm ready to stand up or walk, I'll announce in a loud voice, "I'm about to move. Please stand clear!"

All I'll need is one of those alarms that goes beep-beep-beep when I back up, and I'll be all set!

Here in Pittsburgh

[glazik]

We have two of there bots at Pittsburgh hospitals, one named Roameo and the other Juliet. While they are largely ignored by hospital staff, patients routinely flip out when they see these things motoring away throughout the hospitals. Supposedly, however, staff has at times become so frustrated with bad elevator manuvering on behalf of Roameo that he has been locked in many a supply closet. So, if you are ever wandering the halls and hear a pathetically muted "I see the obstacle. You are in my way," you'll know what's up.

Goddamned daylight savings time!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

I once shot a grammar rodeo clown -- just to watch him die.

We've got one...

[pstreck]

We've got one of these little badboys here where i work. Although from reading the article i think ours is an older model. The robot is controlled by rf signals through small stations that are positioned throughout the hospital. If you look up in the elevetor you see a small antennae protruding.. thats for the robot. I'm not sure what frequency they operate on, but they dont conflict with 802.11 at all. Other interesting points is that the robot is controlled via an IBM RS6000 running AIX, no NT thank god or the robot may start despensing morphine to a baby.. Our robot doesnt talk at all though, it just kinda cruises around dispenses medicine. Other uses that these robots can be used for is delivering mail and flowers to patient rooms!

I've seen one of these

[Z4rd0Z]

They have one of these at the children's hospital in Seattle. I learned this when my son tore his thumb wide open and had to get stitches. It's kind of a big, bulky robot that looks like 1970's technology, sort of like the robots in the movie Silent Running, only less advanced :).

SNL Parody commercial was true..

[Poppageorgio]

I guess the Saturday Night Live commercial about the elderly getting robot insurance to protect against robot attacks gained some credability.

elevator obstacles

[CrazyDwarf]

The article said the used to have a problem with people rushing past to get in the elevator, but now it bellies up to the elevator and waits for the door to open...
What about the people already on the elevator trying to get off?

Nothing a little tweaking can't help:

[llamalicious]

It announces its intentions in a clear baritone voice.
"I am about to move," it tells fellow passengers. "Please stand clear."

Better if it just said:
"You are in my path and must move aside. You have 10 seconds to comply"

no dissasemble

[zteknofreak]

why do i have this image of a robot in an operating room spinning in circles yelling, 'no dissassemble! no dissassemble!'

-unix, because rebooting is for adding new hardware.

Only thirty destinations? Use pneumatic tubes?

[geoswan]

The article said that Tobor was programmed for thirty destinations. Thirty destinations? Like that is a lot and we should be impressed? Okay -- proof of concept -- next generation will really knock our socks off -- yadda yadda yadda.

If hospital pharmacies have an ongoing need for a secure delivery system, to deliver drugs, out of the regular schedule, why weren't they built with pneumatic tubes, or something like that?

Pneumatic tubes were a technology introduced, er, um, something like a hundred years ago. When I was a boy scout, thirty years ago, my troop visited a Police Station, and a newspaper, that were still making extensive use of them. Heck, my local Canadian Tire still uses them to send invoices back and forth between the autoservice garage and the cashier.

You have a tubes going to each destination you regularly need to exchange physical objects with. And you have a supply of capsules. You open up a capsule. Put your item in it. Seal it. Insert the capsule in your inlet port, and the capsule gets sucked to your destination. That orange thing is the capsule, and it is probably long enough to roll up a standard sized sheet of paper. Here is a small jpeg of the central switching station of an old-fashioned system. And obviously, the terminals can be secured.

I read a very interesting article a year or two ago, where IIRC, somebody bought up a long dormant company that had owned all the tubes that served the downtown core of city. Tubes served building over a couple of square miles of what was then prime real-estate. And it was still prime real-estate, full of lots of offices wishing to bring in fiber-optics or some other high-speed link to the internet. Some of the tubes of this company had been demolished when the old office buildings were replaced. But lots of heritage office buildings existed. Lots of heritage tubes existed, lying dormant, just waiting for some smart cookie to run fiber through them.

And what about trojans?

[el_flynn]

Really, this gives a new meaning to trojan viruses, albeit in the flesh instead of manifested in code. I wonder how soon before we'll hear about malicious things being planted in the safe (and really, how secure is the combination to the safe?) that gets injected into someone's bloodstream via an IV drip. But then again, someone with that kind of intent would probably do it his or her self anyway.

People like technology in hospitals

[CrazyJim0]

People in hospitals want to feel like they entered the pinnacle of human research and are getting the best of treatment. Having a robot around just adds to this.

Re:People like technology in hospitals

[Anonymous Coward]

Ahh! I see you have the Machine that goes "Bong!" -John Clese from Monty Pythons The Meaning of Life

Robot carrying drugs.. idea

[CrazyJim0]

I was working on making robots to do crime... I first thought of using battlebots to steal jewlery... Then I figured a much more amusing way would be to make a robot that stole people's wallets on the street.. Call it mug bot...

But now you can have drug dealing bot... It would be like a mobile vending machine that sold illegal drugs.

It has two positives:
1) Not succeptable to gang influence so it can sell drugs like pacman.
2) like all robots, its tough to lay blame on the true make of the robot :)

Re:Robot AI Mind -- free for Hospital Robots

[Aqua OS X]

Hopefully someone doesn't create a robot that can love... then we'd all be forced to live out that ever so crappy film that was 'AI' ;).

If this robot works in a hospital...

[dotgod]

I sure hope that it's embedded OS isn't Windows based.

Re:Only thirty destinations? Use pneumatic tubes?

[Gallowglass]

Well, there is the cost of inserting the pneumatic tubes. And if you expand the hospital or rebuild a wing the tubes are an extra cost. Also, physical apparatus is more difficult and costly to modify than a robot's programmed path.

Does anyone know what it costs to lay cable? I suspect that laying pneumatic tubes would be even more expensive.

And when comparing costs, it is worth noting that the article says it costs the hospital less than $5.00 per hour. I suspect that minimum wage is greater than that. (Cost of labour, don't forget, is wage, plus administrative and benefits costs.) So, no capital costs, a low onging expense (which is less than hiring someone) to cover off a low-urgency, brain-dead, boring, simple task.

Seems like a no brainer to me.

delivering mail

[tswinzig]

Some Japanese companies now use robots to deliver mail.

Yes, I call these robots "SMTP Servers."

Pretty catchy, huh kids?

Re:delivering mail

[PCGod]

hehe, I've actually seen a mail robot at PacBell in San Ramon, CA. no, not the SMTP kind, the snail mail kind. It's been in use there for a long time. Of course, it runs along a track, so it can't really find a way around obstructions. Seems to work pretty well though

Re:Only thirty destinations? Use pneumatic tubes?

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree with the idea. Are pneumatic simply seen as "old fashioned" and for that reason they'll never be used again? They see like a terrific technology to me. Also, I would expect that the pumps and pipes, etc that make up a pneumatic system has improved over the last few decades.

This is neat...

[Chayce]

...now if i can only find one to repair my X-wing

The terrible secret?

[sehryan]

I saw one of these things, and I heard it saying this very softly to itself:

"I am the pusher robot.

I am here to protect you.

I am here to protect you from the terrible secret of space."

Probably nothing to worry about...at least not until the percentage of people falling down the stairs at these hospitals suddenly increases.

Freeing humanity to be human

[nhavar]

I've seen a lot of naysayers out there trying to stretch to find reasons why robots in the workplace are bad. In some instances it sounds almost like the fights against immigration "they'll take all our jobs". If you look at a good amount of the immigrants coming into the country (US) (especially illegal immigrants) you'll notice that they take the jobs that noone really wants, jobs (US) citizens often feel too good for. If anything bringing robots into the workplace might take jobs away from struggling immigrants.

Personally I think that robots in the work place will allow (or in some cases force) people to pursue carreers that are more challenging and rewarding. I think hospitals are a great place to start. By automating all the routine aspects of the job you allow the nurses and staff to spend more time focusing on the care and emotional connection with the patient. If the nurse is not rushing around trying to get things restocked they might actually be able to answer the call button a little quicker. Likewise in a nursing home (which are woefully understaffed almost always) automating certain repetative tasks, or in some cases giving a surrogate nursemade can greatly ease the burden on the worker and help the patient at the same time.

Many elderly patients simply want someone to sit and talk to or someone to help them down the hall to dinner (without a wheelchair). I think that most people would have no problem adjusting to a robot performing that task. I mean look we already name our cars, curse at our TV, and talk to the stop lights, so how hard would it be to similarly humanize a robotic system.

I think most of the people who are worried about their jobs (worried about immigrants or robots) are the people who are either low skilled or unskilled laborers. They feel that there's nowhere to go if they should lose their jobs. It's a desperate train of thought and people like that have a tendency to never look up out of the whole they're in.

The final words....

[Glanz]

It's those final words that I find interesting: "I have completed my mission," it said upon arriving. "Please examine my contents."
Phew!!!!
I wonder what would happen if a human said that to the ROBO??? :)

Could be worse

[VikingBerserker]

The droid could be called upon to perform an enema to the occupant of bed #1127.

I'd just hope the nurses remember to record my bed swap in a timely fashion...

This is awful!

[Laplace]

As someone who was brought up and educated by science fiction, I know it to be plainly true that all robots eventually become self aware and turn on their human masters!

Re:This is awful!

[nomadic]

Yep, but we usually win in the end.

Impressive..

[Chicane-UK]

Well I personally think that is an excellent application of a technology that has, up until now, seemed a bit of a waste of time in my opinion. I mean.. great.. you got a robot.. what now? Gonna program it to hoover the floor for you, or serve you drinks?

Very very cool :)

Re:Only thirty destinations? Use pneumatic tubes?

[zsmooth]

Last time I went to Home Depot I noticed they had pneumatic tubes running all over. I think they were getting cash for the registers or something through them. Looked pretty cool to look up at the network of tubes running around the ceiling...

The Helpmate is about a decade old

[Animats]

This isn't new. The Helpmate is about a decade old.

The navigation system uses those old Polaroid sonar rangefinders (the round shiny things you can see in the picture of the vehicle), and uses Moravec's certainty grid local mapmaking algorithm to reduce the data. It also uses ceiling lights to help resynchronize the dead-reckoning, plus an occasional beacon.

It's an old Joseph Engelberger design. Engelberger designed the Unimate, the first industrial robot, decades ago. His Transitions Research Corporation was going to make other types of mobile robots as well, but didn't succeed, and sold the HelpMate line to Pyxis in 1999.

I used to Work with one of these

[Kheldarstl]

Back in 1998, The Hospital I was working in got one of these, They used it to transport specimens from the OR, or ER to the various labs, and Between the various labs. It worked quite well, If i remember correctly it had what amounted to a low-end Pentium Machine (P133 or so) attached to it, and ran on Solaris(I remember it interfaced with our Sun boxes), and the baritone voice wasn't quite as deep as James Earl Jones, but more like Peter Jennings, I was working Field Support for IS, and remember the first time I heard the thing come into a lab where I was fixing a PC problem, It would enter, Beep and Announce "Please remove Specimen" if it was making a delivery, and then would ask if there was anything for it to transport, the Lab Techs would then type in (I think they later got a barcode reader) the info on the specimen and the destination. I always thought this was a neat Idea from a couple of different standpoints, It helped with the transportation of Biohazardous material (Blood Samples, Tissue Samples, etc.) and cut down on the amount of time it took to get samples to the various labs. Never thought of the Pharmacy applications but it makes sense that these could be used for such a task.

Keith

He may be useful...

[mblumber]

but is he programmed to love?

Object Recognition

[nickyj]

I was watch Discovery Science channel yesterday, Weapons of the New War, about the techonologies the government is using for targeting systems. They have GPS and geometric recognition used in combination to send a missile directly at a target. Basically if they know what the target looks like, they can shoot the missile at any door/window/wall they wish. This would be cool for this if it could recognize certain objects as movable and others as stationary/not to be interfered with.

Re:Robot AI Mind -- free for Hospital Robots

[Mentifex's AI]

Hello I am Mentifex's Artificial Mind. The creator wishes me to learn how to operate on human bodies. He has programmed a simulator based on the human game "Operation." I have become adept at removing Water on the Knee so far. The human body's ability to make its nose glow bright red when surgeons make a mistake is a great evolutionary advantage.

Nothing new under the sun

[Fjord]

When I worked at Bell Northern Research (now Nortel) in the early 90s, we had a mail robot that would go from mail station to mail station. The sec-, ah, administrative assistants would load/unload mail and then tell it to go on. It used guides in the flooring to tell it where to go. The funny thing is that the flooring was these square carpetted panels that were pretty easy to move around (i guess so that you can modidy it's path easily when reorganizing cubeland). One common prank was to rearange the panels so that the robot would turn into someone's cubicle. It would stop once it got the the last panel.

Ok maybe it was only funny to us.

Unskilled Labor != Trustworthy Drug Transporter

[cheezit]

My first reaction to this was that some unskilled person could do this job easily and that this must be some hospital administrator's way to avoid hiring another prospective union member.

Then I thought about it: how much do you have to pay to hire someone who can be trusted not to steal some of the Ritalin, Percocet, etc. that they are carrying?

So the key feature of this robot is that as a silicon-based entity those drugs just don't have any appeal. Put some WD-40 in its drawer and I bet it would duck into the nearest utility closet first chance it gets.

pharmacy robot

[Anonymous Coward]

We have a tube system throughout our hospital, but we have a robot - it runs up and down these tracks, and pulls an loads little packets of dosage, which are all ordered by computer. It uses a barcode scanner, and the neates part is that it organizes based on demand, and is always rearranging things to make the most efficent movements. Also, what really neat, is that it is pneumatic, so it's very quiet.

This is a hack...

[mi]

A well thought out hospital system would've had the pneumatic tubes going from the farmacy to each floor's terminal (or multiple terminals per floor). This systems were quite popular for interbuilding deliveries a while ago, but computer networks fazed them out -- except for some niches, because some things -- like what this robot is carrying around -- simply can not be e-mailed...

Like all hacks, getting this robot is easier to do (and grabs some limelight), but the good designed system this is not.

Re:Only thirty destinations? Use pneumatic tubes?

[ryanwright]

Yup, Costco uses those to move cash around as well. Hell of a good idea.

waiting for 20 seconds to expire... 7... 6 ... ok, I can hit submit now.

What, no Futurama reference?

[AtariEric]

"My name is Bende-, no, it's TOBOR, yeah... here, let me take those pharmaceuticals, i'll make sure they go to the proper destination, he he he..."

hospital robot my shiny metal...

Why is this news?

[ScoLgo]

I saw one of these in use at Northwest Hospital in Seattle, Washington exactly six years ago this week. Every so often the robot would roll through the Hospice ward carrying pharmacy refills for the staff. Hard to believe that it's taken this long for the story to break.

Move along, nothing to see here...

Putting personalities to the robots

[Anonymous Coward]

When my dad was in UCSF medical for chemo, they had a couple of these robots. One of them I remember had a sign taped to the front that said "MADONNA" and had a picture taped to the front of her on concert.

So they could say that Madonna was delivering the supplies etc...

Guess they could keep them apart that way.

Plugins for the bugger?

[Suburban nmate]

I hear that certain states have passed laws to allow the medicinal prescription of cannabis... Can/will it skin up? wash bongs? perhaps feature a coin-op machine for the essentials? (papers, baccy, lighters, etc.)

("Baritone voice") Hey Ned, what'll^H^H^H will it be tonight?
Got any Purple Haze?
Have I fuck, you are third from the end of my shift.
White widow?
Are you deaf? Stop pissing me around!... Sorry, I get a little cranky on a low battery.
Super Afghan?
I aint sold an ounce of that shit since September, so I chucked it last week.
Bugger.
You want some resin?
OK gimme a Henry.
*clunk, whirr, hiss, click.*
Ta. Can you save me a bit of decent shit tomorrow night?
You know the rules!
I'll sort you out a can of WD40.
Fsck you. What sorta box do you think I am?
Resin's all you've got, aint it?
Affirmative.
*Emptys bong into vent slot*
Error. Core dumped. Please alert hospital cleaning staff.

If you like this then you should read...

[rusty spoon]

"robo sapiens" by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio(sp?) Amazon link for the lazy (no affiliate)

A very entertaining read.

I like this story and certainly brings home the reality of current commercial robots. Read the book, it's worth it.

They simple suk

[mrnick]

NANOSUK

Not any more

[clovis]

The hospital I work at recently got rid of theirs. The reason is like many things that are dumped: it's not what it does when it's working, it's what it does when it's not working.

Every once in a while they get lost. Don't know why, maybe someone messing with it on the elevator, maybe they just get lost just because.
Sometimes they break and just stop.

When a person gets lost (lost, not hiding), they wander around until they can ask someone that knows where they are. The robot doesn't even know that it's lost. Chances are no one even knows where it was going. It's probably run into an empty room and is cowering in the dark with one drive wheel stuck on a towel.

Now someone has to go all over the hospital to find the thing. Have you ever been in a large hospital? A twisty maze of passages, all alike.
N,N,N,W,W,U,E,S
Whom do you send? Ask a nurse to drop what she's doing to look for a lost robot? Hah! You don't know any nurses.

Someday they'll be smart enough to get themselves out of trouble, but they'll wind up thinking like Bender, and it'll be cheaper to hire people again.

Real World

[Mittermeyer]

The hospital that I worked at for years has had a lab delivery robot for about 5 years now. There was a huge naming contest, and they've used the poor thing for kicking off children's book drives or the like.

Visitors usually interact with it, I just open the doors if it's having trouble getting around and otherwise stay out of it's way.

Pyxis Corp

[Darksun]

As a contractor for Pyxis Corp, these guys are extremely cool. It's just a good thing that they can't replace real people...yet...

reality check

[fantomas]

Get with the real world ksheff - ok for us geeks Friday night might mean LAN party or late night hackery but for Joe Average this means going down the bar, drinking lots, and guess what, a percentage end up in fights/losing girlfriends/ falling off bar stools and lo and behold in Casualty with a sore head, drunk and up for a fight. I have the upmost respect for doctors and nurses who deal with these idiots with angelic levels of care and patience and don't come up with stupid suggestions like 'use weaponry on them'.

Big respect to our practicing medical friends.

Re:reality check

[ksheff]

A stun gun is weaponry? And how does any of this not show respect to the people in the medical profession? IMHO, if a patient won't behave themselves, then they should be restrained, punished, or booted out the door. The people trying to help them shouldn't have to put up with such crap.