SBIR Phase I: Developing healthcare service robots to improve hospital workflow

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project on health care service robots is in improving the quality of care in hospital systems that are increasingly burdened by an aging population and labor shortages. This project has potential for positive societal impact by reducing the workload of medical staff whose primary responsibilities require special training and human-centered skills, such as nurses. With U.S. life expectancy on the rise, skilled nurses are becoming more in demand. Automation could ameliorate the labor shortage by allowing humans to focus on providing skilled care. In addition, the proposed project aims for our technology to be general-purpose enough to eventually transfer to other markets, such as longterm care facilities and eventually individual consumers. Robots that perform assistive tasks in homes could increase the feasibility of independent living for many older adults. The proposed project is aimed at establishing the technical and commercial feasibility of our approach. The team is working closely with a strategic partner hospital to first establish a process map and understand where service robots could have the most impact in their workflow, defining the highest impact robot tasks. The core technology proposed in this project will be around the learning algorithms for quickly and efficiently training the needed behaviors for robots to accomplish these high-impact tasks in a hospital setting. Additionally the team is in building social robots that work seamlessly in dynamic human environments. The ultimate goal is to develop a service robot that hospital staff view as a competent member of the care team. Finally it is proposed to pilot test the developed robot technology in a month-long trial, quantifying the impact that reduced workload can have on the nursing staff along a number of dimensions.