Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR) Transport Sterile Goods

His name is Optimus, and he is a Mobile Industrial Robot. This is how the staff at the Zealand University Hospital in Denmark refer to the MiR100 robot that has automated the internal transport of sterile disposable equipment since June 2018. Optimus travels more than 10 kilometres per week, improving service, minimising storage space, saving steps, and preventing shortages, which has made him quickly become popular at the hospital.

“I am really surprised by how quickly both staff and patients have become accustomed to Optimus,” says Johnny Hansen, Operations Manager for Zealand University Hospital. “They refer to the robot as a colleague, and “he” has—in a few weeks—become part of the environment. It indicates how humans quickly perceive new technologies as a natural part of everyday life. With MiR’s technology, we free service assistants from logistics tasks to warmer tasks like patient care. We have already achieved enormous gains by introducing this autonomous technology.”

Before Optimus arrived, service assistants provided weekly disposable equipment deliveries to hospital departments. The manual procedure involved heavy lifting and an uncomfortable twist in the body. Now, the robot delivers equipment daily, ensuring the departments do not run out of goods.

“Heavy, monotonous and repetitive tasks must be taken over by technology,” states Hansen. “I am happy that our cooperation with the Mobile Industrial Robot and the distributor, Flextek, has shown that we can create great workplace health benefits by automating physically demanding transportation tasks.”

Hansen explains that robot technology changes how tasks are carried out, requiring job descriptions to be reorganised and redefined to get the most value. “This changes the way we work,” he says. “We have all the reasons to believe that we started a positive automation wave. We have freed up both the human resources that were deployed for transportation and expensive square meters used as depots. At the same time, we can improve the entire flow and minimise waiting times thanks to more frequent and targeted deliveries.”

One Robot and Ten Carts

Flextek, a Danish distributor of Mobile Industrial Robots, was responsible for the technical implementation of the hospital’s first mobile robot. This consists of four parts:

• At the base is the MiR100 robot, which has a lift capacity of 100 kg.
• A top module by the accessory manufacturer ROEQ is installed on the robot’s load surface.
• A wheeled cart clicks onto the top module when the robot autonomously drives underneath the cart.
• A cabinet is mounted on the cart, which is sealed by the sterilisation centre.

At the sterilisation centre, the staff packs disposable equipment and sterile tools into the cart-top cabinets. The mobile robot then runs between the sterilisation centre and ten different stops in the hospital. Service assistants in the various departments empty the carts.

The hospital staff has seen the mobile robot’s possibilities and continuously provided valuable inputs for a smooth and safe implementation. For example, Optimus has been programmed to politely warn patients and staff that it is getting closer before silently driving through automatic doors or out of the elevator. Signs have also been mounted on its front, which indicate the robot’s current destinations to the people around it.

The experience with the first mobile robot from MiR has given the hospital more ideas for automating other transport tasks in the facility. One of the scenarios envisioned by Zealand University Hospital is the transport of customised equipment packages for every planned operation. This will have a tremendous impact once the number of operating rooms is quadrupled. The pilot project has shown that the hospital can program operation plans into the MiR robot’s daily program and ensure deliveries of the right equipment at the right time. The automated delivery of medicines from hospital pharmacies and laboratories is another obvious task for mobile robots in a super hospital.

To find out more about MiR robots, visit our MiR Autonomous Mobile Robots page.