Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Pharm-Bot Goes On Rampage

Posted by Zonk on from the watch-the-flailing-limbs dept.

budgenator writes "Seems that Waldo, a robot that delivers medication from the pharmacy to the nurses stations, went on an extracurricular journey at San Francisco's UCSF Medical Center last Tuesday. Waldo entered uninvited into a radiation oncology examination room disturbing a Doctor and Patient enough that it caused them to flee the room. Is navigating a hospital full of moving humans more difficult than navigating the DARPA grand challenge, or could it be that like his sibling robort Elvis, he just wanted to leave the building?"

1 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. What actually happened by Dorm41Baggins · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Instead, the crazed automaton [...] careened past the drug depository before barging into a room in the hospital's radiation oncology department where an examination was in progress.

    The psychotic pill pusher reportedly refused to leave, sending both doctor and patient fleeing for their lives.

    In other words, the robot pushed its way into the room, realized it was lost and stopped moving. The doctor then left to go call a tech to get the thing out of the exam room. The patient, not particularly interested in waiting around in a small room with a large, seemingly unpredictable piece of machinery, decided to wait out in the hall for him to come back.

    That's my guess, anyway.