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

这一小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目对医疗服务机器人的更广泛影响/商业潜力在于提高医院系统的护理质量，这些系统日益受到人口老龄化和劳动力短缺的影响。 该项目有可能通过减少医务人员的工作量产生积极的社会影响，这些医务人员的主要职责需要特殊培训和以人为本的技能，如护士。随着美国人预期寿命的增加，对熟练护士的需求越来越大。自动化可以通过让人类专注于提供熟练的护理来缓解劳动力短缺。此外，拟议项目的目标是使我们的技术具有足够的通用性，最终转移到其他市场，如长期护理设施，并最终转移到个人消费者。在家中执行辅助任务的机器人可以增加许多老年人独立生活的可行性。拟议的项目旨在确定我们的方法在技术和商业上的可行性。该团队正在与一家战略合作伙伴医院密切合作，首先建立流程图，了解服务机器人在工作流程中的影响力，定义影响力最大的机器人任务。 该项目提出的核心技术将围绕学习算法，快速有效地训练机器人在医院环境中完成这些高影响力任务所需的行为。 此外，该团队正在构建能够在动态人类环境中无缝工作的社交机器人。 最终目标是开发一种服务机器人，医院工作人员将其视为护理团队的合格成员。 最后，建议试点测试开发的机器人技术在一个月的试验，量化的影响，减少工作量可以对护理人员沿着一些方面。

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.