Testing and evaluation of a patrol robot system for hospitals

摘要

Abstract To compensate for shortages of nurses and to reduce the stress of nursing work, we have attempted to create a patrol robot system for hospitals. The system consists of an autonomous mobile robot that can judge the condition of patients while moving around sickrooms, and a patrol information terminal to allow observation of the patrol conditions from the nurse center. For motion control during autonomous running, we propose a navigation technique using self‐estimation of the robot's position from a sequence of view images and color information. Running experiments have been performed as a preliminary practical implementation. In the proposed technique, the combined use of broad and narrow position estimation is possible and real‐time performance is excellent. In addition, the system is robust to environmental changes. A patient condition checking algorithm has been designed and the effectiveness of personal identification and facial expression recognition by SOM have been confirmed. Field tests at hospital facilities have confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed system equipped with the capability for navigation by visual information and with the patient condition checking algorithm. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn Pt 3, 86(12): 14–26, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/ecjc.10139