High-tech help for doctors and nursing staff: Service robot jeeve can protect and help patients and clinic staff during the corona crisis.
The technology company Robotise wants to help quickly alleviate current staff shortages in hospitals, doctors’ practices and nursing homes.
The company, which emerged from the Technical University of Munich, is modifying its JEEVES service robot for this purpose. The 1.10-meter-high robot has been used primarily for minibar and room service in hotels until now. But the robotic butler will now be used as an autonomous assistant for the health sector. It is available immediately for orders, can be customized for each application in consultation with the client and is ready for use within a few weeks.
JEEVES is intended to support work in clinics, rehabilitation centers, nursing homes, laboratories and large medical practices, among other things. This allows staff greater time for more critical and useful medical tasks.
For example, JEEVES can operate as an independent logistics unit and distribute beverages, supply stations with medication, and transport laboratory samples or surgical instruments. The autonomously operating robot has several drawers with a total loading volume of around 100 liters for this purpose. It can refrigerate the contents of the drawers if required, allowing it to transport sensitive goods such as blood samples while maintaining a specific temperature.
After a short installation phase, JEEVES can operate independently in a predefined environment. To do this, it uses a kind of internal map, for example of a particular ward of the clinic, for navigation. Various sensors help it find its way around by detecting obstacles such as beds in hospital corridors and other objects. JEEVES travels independently by elevator to other floors and can work alone or automatically follow doctors or nurses during their rounds, in order to always have important utensils such as dressing material and medications available.
In the current situation, JEEVES can facilitate the care of isolated COVID-19 patients, for example by providing them with drinks or snacks. While physicians and nurses have to wear cumbersome protective clothing for these tasks, JEEVES can easily work in isolation wards. This minimizes the contact of COVID-19 patients with other people and thus the risk of infection for hospital staff. JEEVES makes “social isolation” possible without endangering the care of the quarantined patient.
The service robot can provide valuable support especially now when medical personnel are often reaching their limits in terms of stress. It can work around the clock without tiring and becoming susceptible to errors. This gives doctors and nurses more freedom to provide professional services and personal contact with patients.
JEEVES consists of a base that can be equipped with different modules for the respective application. So each service robot can be custom configured according to the user’s needs. It is standardly equipped with three to four drawers, accepts instructions via a specially programmed app or computer software and has an 18.5-inch display via which it communicates with its counterpart.
Voice output is also being planned now. And there are plans to equip the robot so it can independently disinfect certain hospital areas – JEEVES would be a great help for COVID-19 stations here as well. Another possible use is for automated temperature measurement, for example for patients in clinics or of people in public spaces such as airports. The engineers at Robotise are also working on this functionality.
JEEVES is ready for operation at short notice. Robotise offers customers a leasing model so rapid deployment of the robot is not held up by lengthy investment decisions. In this so-called “Robots-as-a-Service model,” the manufacturer and customer work closely together throughout the entire period of use of JEEVES so Robotise can continuously ensure the security and maintenance of the robots.
Robotise’s vision for JEEVES
JEEVES is the first service robot for the European hotel industry and soon for the rest of the world. Due to the flexibility and learning capacity of the system, JEEVES can also be used in many other contexts where people need to be supplied with goods.
Robotise develops and markets service robots for companies and public institutions. The company’s core objective is to solve everyday challenges where service robots can provide great benefits – such as improving service performance, relieving personnel, compensating for shortages of skilled workers and opening up new opportunities for customers. Robotise was founded in 2016 by Johannes Fuchs and Oliver Stahl. The company’s headquarters are located at the “Ideas Campus” in Munich. Today, the robotics team includes more than 30 employees, and the company plans to continue to grow in all business areas.
Contact Robotise GmbH
Sarah Bretzler – Head of Sales & Marketing
E-Mail: presse@robotise.eu
https://pflegeroboter.robotise.eu
https://robotise.eu