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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?"

7 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. Rampage?? by r2q2 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I would think that rampage is much too strong of a word. More like unplanned excursion. Maybe it is a hint that the robot is becoming self aware? Either that or bad software design.

    --
    My UID is prime is yours?
    1. Re:Rampage?? by Scud · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Either that or bad software design.

      More likely that there was a hardware failure of some kind. But you can't rule out crappy software.

      We use AGV (Automatic Guided Vehicles) and they have been known to the same thing. Hardly a rampage, more like aimlessly wandering around.

      These things are a perfect example of the evils of closed-source design, you are cked into your vendor for everything, and if they can't be bothered with it then it ain't gonna get fixed.

      The ones we use (from CEC) have a mixture of commercial and home-grown hardware, most of the stuff we have no other choice but to go to the vendor for replacement parts. Where they charge us out the ass for more of their crappy hardware.

      I mean these idiots designed a 28 bit wide input card. Who in the hell uses a 28 bit buss?

      Dipshits.

      Ok, I'm done ranting...

      --
      I dream in binary.
  2. More hype by Sarcastic+Assassin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sadly, this story is more hype than fact. While the headline makes it seem like the robot is something you need insurance for, if you click through to the SF Chronicle article (and then scroll down a bit), you'll see that it was merely an accident, probably due to some bug in the navigation software.

  3. These things are SMART by kaosrain · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My grandmother was hospitalized for brain surgery a year ago, and I spent long days in the hospital. They also had a Waldo, and let me tell you, they were advanced. They would navigate around people, use the elevators (push the buttons, shuffle around in the elevator when it got more/less crowded, wouldn't get into the elevator if it was too full.) It annoyed some of the nurses because it would ask them to do something, and if they were busy so they decided to ignore it, Waldo would remind them every minute or so. I wish everyone at the hospital was as courteous as Waldo ;)

    1. Re:These things are SMART by willpall · · Score: 3, Interesting
      I was doing some work in a local hospital a year ago, riding the elevator up when I was quite startled to see a robot get on at the next floor. When the doors closed, I started to get very nervous.

      I mean, they're strong, 'cause they're made of metal.

      Anyway the system at that hospital had equipment up in the elevator control room that the robot would communicate with. The robot could call an elevator and would even know not to get on if there were too many people already on, as the robot equipment in the control room had access to the weight sensors on the elevator equipment. Pretty fun to follow that guy around all day instead of working...

      --
      Libertarian: label used by embarrassed Republicans, longing to be open about their greed, drug use and porn collections.
  4. Re:So, it has started... by njcoder · · Score: 2, Interesting
    " The villian in the movie is a "good boy gone bad" nerdy engineer type"

    All that crap and you missed the most important point. The villain in the move was Gene Simmons of KISS!

    --
    Open Source Java DAO Generator
  5. Not the first time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    In my medical school, we had one of these, too. Our robot must have been about 5 ft heigh and 4 ft wide. It followed a little electric wire placed in the ceiling as it went about its duties of bringing meds and other supplies to the floor. If you stood in front of it, it would spill out a pre-recorded message along the lines of "Please step aside". If a door closed in a fire alarm, it would sometimes be found in front of the door, pleading for it to step aside. The only time I saw it leave its track, though, was quite an experience. After a patient died in the ICU, and the family had left, I was in the room with the nurses. In came the robot, somehow lost off its track, came in through the ICU door, right up to the deceased's bed, stating "please step aside" to nurses and the deceased. Meanwhile, the thing was blocking the door. We had to bodily shove the monsterous, heavy thing backwards to get it out of the room!