Disclosure of Invention
The application aims to solve the technical problems of providing a medicine bottle grabbing system and a medicine bottle grabbing method which can automatically acquire required medicines and effectively control the medicine taking error rate.
In order to solve at least a part of the above technical problems, the present application provides a medicine bottle grabbing system, which comprises a medicine cabinet, a medicine taking manipulator, a label reader and a controller, wherein the label reader and the controller are arranged on the medicine taking manipulator;
the medicine cabinet comprises a medicine bottle clamp, wherein the medicine bottle clamp is configured to contain at least one medicine bottle and concentrate the medicine bottle at a first end of the medicine bottle clamp, and a label is arranged at the first end of the medicine bottle clamp;
the controller is configured to:
controlling the medicine taking manipulator to move to the medicine bottle clamp according to the medicine taking instruction;
controlling the tag reader to read the tag;
determining that the tag corresponds to the medication instruction;
the medicine taking manipulator is controlled to grasp a medicine bottle positioned at the first end.
According to at least one embodiment of the present application, the medication intake manipulator includes an arm portion and a hand portion provided on the arm portion;
the controller is configured to:
controlling the arm to move to the medicine bottle clamp according to the medicine taking instruction;
the hand is controlled to grasp a vial at the first end.
According to at least one embodiment of the application, the tag reader is disposed on a side of the arm;
the controller is configured to:
the arm is controlled to move to the vial holder according to the medication instruction to align the tag reader with the tag.
According to at least one embodiment of the present application, the medication instruction includes a movement instruction and vial information;
the controller is configured to:
controlling the arm to move to the medicine bottle clamp according to the movement instruction;
judging whether the label corresponds to the medicine bottle information.
According to at least one embodiment of the application, the medicine bottle clip has a plurality of pushing grooves, and the hand is provided with a medicine bottle sensor;
the controller is configured to:
controlling the medicine bottle sensor to detect whether the hand grabs the medicine bottle;
the medicine taking manipulator is controlled to sequentially grasp the plurality of pushing grooves until the medicine bottle sensor detects that the hand grasps the medicine bottle.
According to at least one embodiment of the application, the hand comprises two gripping members configured to move towards each other, the hand being configured to extend outwardly from the arm;
the controller is configured to:
controlling the hand to extend from the arm portion toward the vial clip to at least a portion of the gripping member into the vial clip;
the two gripping members are controlled to move toward each other to grip the vial.
According to at least one embodiment of the application, the drug cabinet includes a plurality of drug vial clamps, each configured to receive the same drug vial;
the vial clip includes a vial holder having a height corresponding to the height of a vial received by the vial clip, the vial holder covering a location of a second vial 301 from the first end;
the medicine taking manipulator breaks away from the medicine bottle clamp in an upward moving mode when grabbing the medicine bottle.
At least one part of the technical problems of the application are not solved, and the application also provides a medicine bottle grabbing method, which comprises the following steps:
obtaining a medicine taking instruction;
moving the medicine taking manipulator to a medicine bottle clamp according to the medicine taking instruction;
reading the label on the medicine bottle clamp by a label reader on the medicine taking manipulator;
determining that the content of the tag corresponds to the medicine taking instruction;
the medicine taking manipulator is used for grabbing the medicine bottle in the medicine bottle clamp.
According to at least one embodiment of the present application, the vial holder has a plurality of advancement grooves;
when the manipulator is used for grabbing the medicine bottles in the medicine bottle clamps, the pushing grooves are sequentially grabbed until the medicine bottles are grabbed.
According to at least one embodiment of the application, the manipulator is provided with a medicine bottle sensor;
the vial sensor is configured to detect whether the arm grips a vial.
According to the medicine bottle grabbing system and the medicine bottle grabbing method, the label on the medicine bottle clamp is read before the medicine bottle is grabbed, and whether the label corresponds to a medicine taking instruction or not is judged, so that automatic medicine taking can be finished, and the error rate of medicine taking can be effectively controlled.
Detailed Description
In order to make the above objects, features and advantages of the present application more comprehensible, embodiments accompanied with figures are described in detail below.
In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present application, but the present application may be practiced in other ways than as described herein, and therefore the present application is not limited to the specific embodiments disclosed below.
Certain terms are used throughout the description and claims to refer to particular system components. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, different companies may refer to a component by different names. It is not intended herein to distinguish between components that differ in name but not function. In the description and claims, the terms "comprising" and "including" are used in an open-ended fashion, and thus should be interpreted to mean "including, but not limited to …".
As used in the specification and in the claims, the terms "a," "an," "the," and/or "the" are not specific to a singular, but may include a plurality, unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. In general, the terms "comprises" and "comprising" merely indicate that the steps and elements are explicitly identified, and they do not constitute an exclusive list, as other steps or elements may be included in a method or apparatus.
In addition, each embodiment of the following description has one or more features, respectively, which does not mean that the inventor must implement all features of any embodiment at the same time, or that only some or all of the features of different embodiments can be implemented separately. In other words, those skilled in the art can implement some or all of the features of any one embodiment or a combination of some or all of the features of multiple embodiments selectively, depending on the design specifications or implementation requirements, thereby increasing the flexibility of the implementation of the application where implemented as possible.
An embodiment of the vial gripping system and the vial gripping method of the present application will be described below with reference to fig. 1 and 3. In the current embodiment, the vial gripping system includes a drug cabinet 100, a drug delivery robot 200, a tag reader 220 provided on the drug delivery robot, and a controller. The drug cabinet 100 includes one or more drug vial clamps 110. Referring to fig. 1, in the current embodiment, the drug cabinet 100 includes 5 layers of 3 drug vial clamps 110 each. Each of the medicine bottle holders 110 is capable of accommodating at least one medicine bottle 300 and concentrating the accommodated medicine bottles at one end of the medicine bottle holder so that the medicine taking robot 200 can grasp the medicine bottles more conveniently. For ease of reference, this end of the vial set will be referred to hereinafter as first end 111. The vial clip 110 is provided with a label 112 on its first end 111 in addition to the above-described construction. The content on the label 112 can reflect the type of vial 300 housed in the vial holder 110. It is noted that the content on the label 112 may have various forms, such as a medicine number, a medicine bottle name, a bar code, a two-dimensional code, or the like of the medicine bottle 300.
The controller is connected to both the drug delivery manipulator 200 and the tag reader 220 and is capable of controlling the drug delivery manipulator 200 and the tag reader 220. The specific location and form of the controller may be varied, and the manner in which the controller is connected to the drug delivery manipulator 200 and the tag reader 220 may also be varied. The controller may be provided either inside the device as shown in fig. 1 to 3 or outside it, and is therefore not shown in fig. 1 to 3.
The controller may implement the drug delivery method by controlling the drug delivery manipulator 200 and the tag reader 220. An example of such a medication intake method is described below with reference to fig. 4:
in step 10, the controller obtains a medication instruction. The specific manner in which the medication instruction is obtained may vary. For example, the medication order may be entered by a user such as a doctor, nurse, etc. via an input device of the vial gripping system. For another example, the controller is connected to a network and the medication order is obtained by the controller from the network.
It should be noted that the above step 10 is first described and does not represent that the step 10 is necessarily the first step. In some embodiments, a "start" step may also be performed prior to performing this step 10, with reference to fig. 4. In this "start" step, system self-checking, connection to a network, connection quality detection, etc. can be performed.
In step 20, the controller controls the medicine-taking manipulator 200 to move to the medicine bottle holder 110 corresponding to the medicine-taking instruction according to the medicine-taking instruction. The specific manner of this step may also be varied. For example, in some embodiments, the medication order includes a movement order that corresponds to the location of a particular vial clip 110. Therefore, when the controller moves the medicine-taking manipulator 200 to a position corresponding to the movement command, the position is a position corresponding to the medicine-taking command and a position corresponding to the specific medicine bottle holder 110.
In other embodiments, the medication order includes only medication information. After obtaining the medicine information, the controller queries in a database storing the medicine information and the corresponding medicine cabinet position according to the medicine information, so as to obtain the position information of the medicine bottle clamp 110 corresponding to the medicine taking instruction. In this embodiment, the controller moves the medicine-taking robot 200 to a position corresponding to the position information according to the position information. This position is the position corresponding to the medication order and the position also corresponds to the corresponding vial clip 110.
In step 30, the controller controls the tag reader 220 to read the tag 112 located on the first end 111 of the vial clip 110. The specific form of the tag reader 220 may be varied, and in some embodiments, the tag reader 220 is a camera and is capable of capturing the tag 112. In other embodiments, where tag reader 220 is a radio frequency antenna and tag 112 is a radio frequency identification tag (Radio Frequency Identification, RFID), tag reader 220 is capable of transmitting radio frequency signals to read tag 112.
In step 40, the controller determines whether the read tag 112 corresponds to a medication instruction. If the result is judged to be corresponding, the subsequent medicine taking step can be continued. To accomplish this, the medication order may include vial information, which may be the same or different from the information on the tag 112.
If it is determined in this step that the tag 112 does not correspond to the medication instruction, a corresponding process may be performed. Referring to FIG. 4, in some embodiments, upon determining that tag 112 does not correspond to a medication instruction, a prompt step is skipped to prompt the user.
In step 50, the controller controls the drug delivery manipulator 200 to grasp a drug vial 300 located at the first end 111 of the drug vial holder 110.
According to the medicine bottle grabbing system and the medicine bottle grabbing method, the label on the medicine bottle clamp is read before the medicine bottle is grabbed, whether the label corresponds to the medicine taking instruction or not is judged, and the medicine taking step is only carried out when the read label corresponds to the medicine taking instruction, so that automatic medicine taking can be completed, and the error rate of medicine taking can be effectively controlled.
While the vial gripping system and vial gripping method of one embodiment of the present application are described above, in other embodiments of the present application, the vial gripping system and vial gripping method may have more details than the above-described embodiments and at least a portion of these details may vary widely in many respects. For example, the user is alerted in some embodiments by an audible alert in the alert step, and in other embodiments by an alert sent to a user terminal connected to the vial gripping system. At least some of these details and variations are described below in terms of some embodiments.
Referring to fig. 2 and 3, in some embodiments, the drug delivery manipulator 200 further includes an arm 210 and a hand 230. Wherein the hand 230 is disposed on the arm 210. In these embodiments, when the controller moves the drug delivery manipulator 200 according to the drug delivery instruction, for example, when the controller controls the drug delivery manipulator 200 to move to the drug vial clip 110 corresponding to the drug delivery instruction according to the drug delivery instruction in step 20, the controller controls the arm 210 to move according to the drug delivery instruction or the movement instruction in the drug delivery instruction until the arm 210 moves to correspond to the specific drug vial clip 110.
Accordingly, when the controller is controlling the drug delivery manipulator 200 to grasp, for example, the controller controls the drug delivery manipulator 200 to grasp the drug vial 300 located at the first end 111 of the drug vial holder 110 in step 50, the controller controls the hand 230 to grasp the drug vial 300 located at the first end 111.
With continued reference to fig. 2 and 3, in some embodiments, a tag reader 220 is disposed on a side of the arm 210. Accordingly, to enable the label reader 220 to read the label more smoothly, the controller controls the arm 210 to move to a position where the label reader 220 is aligned with the label 112 on the first end 111 of the vial clip 110 when the arm 210 is controlled to move according to the medicine taking command.
With continued reference to fig. 2 and 3, in some embodiments, the vial clip 110 has a plurality of advancement grooves 114. Each propulsion slot 114 has a propulsion structure therein. The pushing structures are used to push vials 300 in each pushing slot 114 toward the first end 111 of the vial holder 110. A medicine bottle sensor 240 is provided on the hand 230 of the medicine taking manipulator 200. The vial sensor 240 is connected to the controller and is capable of detecting whether the hand 230 is gripping the vial 300 under the control of the controller.
Such an arrangement enables the controller to control the drug delivery manipulator 200 to sequentially grasp the plurality of pushing slots 114 while controlling the drug delivery manipulator 200 to grasp a drug, and to control the drug vial sensor 240 to continuously or intermittently detect whether the hand 230 is grasping a drug vial. When the vial sensor 240 detects that the hand 230 has grasped a vial 300, continued grasping of the other propulsion grooves 114 may be stopped. This arrangement allows the vial picking robot 200 to grasp a vial when there is any vial in any one of the propulsion slots 114, thereby allowing the quasi-vial holder 110 to be provided with multiple propulsion slots 114 without maintaining a vial in each of the propulsion slots 114.
The benefits of providing a plurality of push channels 114 are manifold, in one aspect, the provision of a plurality of push channels 114 can greatly increase the capacity of a single vial clip 110 while maintaining the overall structure of the vial clip 110 relatively simple. On the other hand, providing a plurality of propulsion grooves 114 may prevent the user from affecting the handling of the medicine bottles in other propulsion grooves 114 by the medicine taking manipulator 200 when performing the operation of replenishing medicine bottles in some propulsion grooves 114.
In the foregoing example, the sensor 240 has been described as being coupled to the controller and capable of detecting whether the hand 230 is gripping the vial 300 under the control of the controller. This is because the specific type of sensor 240 and the specific manner in which the hand 230 is detected as grasping the vial 300 may vary. In some embodiments, the sensor 240 is capable of detecting pressure on the surface of the hand 230. When the hand grips the vial 300, the sensor 240 detects the pressure rise on the surface of the hand 230 and transmits the detection result to the controller, and at this time the controller can know that the hand 230 has gripped the vial 300. Referring to fig. 3, in some other embodiments, the sensor 240 is a light sensor and is capable of detecting the intensity of light at the center of the hand 230. The intensity of light in the center of the hand 230 changes when the hand grips the vial 300. The sensor 240 is able to detect such a change so that the controller knows that the hand 230 has grasped the vial 300.
The hand 230 has been described in the foregoing examples as being capable of gripping a vial 300 at the first end 111 only because the specific form of the hand 230 may be varied. For example, in some embodiments the hand 230 includes a tray and a catch. The catch is capable of hooking onto the vial 300 and dragging it over the tray. Referring to fig. 3, in some embodiments, the hand 230 includes two grasping elements 231. The two gripping members 231 are separated from each other and are movable toward each other. The hand 230 can also extend outwardly from the arm 210.
The arrangement is such that the controller controls the hand 230 to extend outwardly from the arm 210 when controlling the hand 230 to grasp, for example, when controlling the drug delivery manipulator 200 to grasp a drug vial 300 located at the first end 111 of the drug vial holder 110 in step 50. Since the arm 210 has now been moved to a position corresponding to the vial clip 110, such extension may cause the gripper 231 to at least partially enter the interior of the vial clip 110.
After the gripping members 231 at least partially enter the interior of the medicine bottle holder 110, the controller may perform gripping of the medicine bottle 300 by controlling the two gripping members 231 to move toward each other such that the two gripping members 231 grip the medicine bottle 300 positioned in the medicine bottle holder 110.
Referring to fig. 2 and 5, in some embodiments, the drug cabinet 100 includes a plurality of drug vial clamps 110 and each drug vial clamp 110 is used to house the same drug vial containing the same drug. The vial clip 110 is also provided with a vial holder 115. The height of the medicine bottle holding means 115 is set to correspond to the height of the medicine bottle 300 accommodated in the medicine bottle holder 110. The vial holder 115 is capable of covering the position of the second vial 301 of the vial clip 110 from the first end. In other words, if a plurality of vials are provided in the vial holder 110, the vial holder 115 will overlie the second vial 301 from the first end in the vial holder 110.
In this embodiment, the medicine taking robot 200, after grasping the medicine bottle 300, disengages the grasped medicine bottle 300 from the medicine bottle holder 110 in an upward moving manner. Since the drug delivery manipulator 200 is generally designed to be capable of gripping a variety of vials having different sizes. It is thus possible to grasp a second vial 301 from the first end at the same time as grasping some smaller size vials. The provision of the vial holder 115 and the upward movement of the drug delivery manipulator 200 to grasp a vial can cause the vial holder 115 to block the second vial 301 when the drug delivery manipulator 200 is grasping two vials and moving upward. The blocked second vial 301 will not move upward with the drug delivery manipulator 200 and disengage from the drug delivery manipulator 200 and remain within the vial clip 110. Such an arrangement can ensure that the drug delivery manipulator 200 only grips one vial at a time.
The specific form of the vial holder 115 may be varied. In some embodiments, the holder body 120 of the vial holder 115 is disposed horizontally above the location of the second vial from the first end of the vial clip 110, acting to block upward movement of the second vial 301. The medicine bottle holder 115 further includes holder side plates 116 vertically provided at both ends of the holder body 120. The vial holder 115 is provided on the vial clip 110 in such a manner that the holder side plate 116 is fixed to the clip side plate 118 of the vial clip 110.
The specific manner in which the retainer side plate 116 is secured to the clip side plate 118 of the vial clip 110 may vary. In some embodiments, the retainer side plate 116 is removably secured to the clip side plate 118 of the vial clip 110 in order to enable the vial clip 110 to be fitted with a variety of different sized vials. Specifically, the holder side plate 116 is provided with a plurality of holder positioning holes 117. Clip locating holes are correspondingly formed in the clip side plates 118. The locating pegs 119 secure the retainer locating holes 117 and the clip locating holes together. Such an arrangement allows the user to adjust the height of the holder body 120 by securing the clip positioning holes with different holder positioning holes 117, thereby enabling the vial clip 110 to fit a variety of different sized vials.
Alternatively, in some embodiments, the locating pegs 119 are made of a material that is resilient so that the pressure between the cap body 120 and the second vial 301 is not excessive when blocked. In some embodiments, clip side plate 118 is further provided with a recess in which holder side plate 116 slides, and a clip locating hole is provided in the recess.
While the application has been described with reference to a number of specific embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing embodiments are merely illustrative of the application, and various equivalent changes and substitutions may be made without departing from the spirit of the application. Therefore, changes and modifications to the above-described embodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims.