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Hospital rolls out wheelchair robot to help patients get around


A wheelchair robot is shown at the Kyushu University Hospital in Fukoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, on Wednesday.FUKUOKA -

- A wheelchair robot that can carry patients to various departments in a hospital has been unveiled here.

The robot, which can help physically handicapped patients move around inside a hospital, appeared during an open experiment held at the Kyushu University Hospital in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, on Wednesday.

"Technically speaking, the wheelchair robot is at a stage where it can almost be practically used. We would like to develop a new model by designing a robot that will match the purpose and needs of hospitals," said Tsutomu Hasegawa, professor at the Kyushu University graduate school.

During the experiment, a wheelchair robot greeted a woman playing the role of a patient as she showed her registration card at the reception. When the patient sat in the wheelchair, it read out the electronic information on her patient card and transported her to a medical examination room. It can also move from one examination room to another.

The robot can memorize the three-dimensional design inside the wards at the hospital and choose which path to take by communicating with electronic tags embedded in the patient's registration card and the floor. The robot can move at up to 4 kilometers per hour -- about the same speed of a human being walking. It can also avoid obstacles by detecting them with a sensor.

Furthermore, a panel attached to the wheelchair robot lets the patient know how long he or she would have to wait in front of a department to see a doctor by displaying how many other patients are waiting.

The development of the wheelchair robot is part of the Robot Town Project, which is promoted by the Institute of Systems & Information Technologies/Kyushu -- a body that includes the Kyushu University graduate school.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news...na022000c.html