KR20150119734A - Hospital Room Assistant Robot - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a hospital room assistant robot capable of assisting nurses by transferring medicines to be prescribed to patients or charts to rounding doctors while moving to input hospital rooms or other locations by itself. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the hospital room assistant robot comprises: a head part enabling the image recognition of obstacles, such as people, objects, and others, having a voice recognition unit embedded to have a simple conversation with the people, and vertically and laterally rotated; a tool part coupled to the lower part of the head part, on which multiple contents which users can select are displayed, and outputting an image or a voice recognized by the head part, and detecting the obstacles; a drive part coupled to the lower part of the tool part to avoid the obstacles and to prevent collision with the obstacles, having a charging device, and driving a sensor part, the head part, an arm part, and the tool part; and a control part embedded in the rear surface of the tool part to integrally control the sensor part, the head part, the arm part, the tool part, and the drive part.

Description

{Hospital Room Assistant Robot}

More particularly, the present invention relates to a robot assistant for a ward room, and more particularly, to a nursing assistant in a hospital or a rehabilitation center, an autonomous running function through recognition and avoidance of obstacles using autonomous navigation and sensors, Function, and is an autonomous mobile robot based on autonomous position recognition and environmental information recognition in the indoor environment of the building. It can assist the nurses in delivering charts to the doctor in the room or to the doctor in the round room It is about a ward robot. Especially, it is a flexible structure that can increase or decrease the height of the robot according to the situation, and it is intended to provide an intelligent sickroom robot capable of performing simple conversation with people.

With the recent development of medical technology and changes in diet, the aging of the population is accelerating due to the increase in the average age of the human being, and the increase in the number of manpower for nursing or care for the elderly or the patient is increased to a mild level. In contrast, the shortage of nurses reduces the quality of medical services for patients by increasing simple and repetitive mores such as charts and drug delivery besides nursing services for patients.

Therefore, there is an increasing need for robots to assist nurses in their simple and repetitive work areas.

In the past, robots have been mainly used for the industrial use of labor substitute workers. Recently, the paradigm of the robot industry has been shifted to human friendly intelligent robots with high value added services.

The development of intelligent robots is expected to contribute to the reduction of the labor force which is a problem in the age of low fertility and aging, and to increase the demand for services for alienation and social disadvantage. In particular, as a robot that assists nursing staff in nursing, it is becoming increasingly important that the nursing assistant robot can reduce the burden on simple and repetitive parts of nurses' tasks.

As an application and utilization of such intelligent robots, development of robots to replace or assist nursing personnel is increasing rapidly.

The conventional robotic device proposed according to this necessity is a technique of measuring a biological signal of a patient and notifying a doctor of a comparison of whether the measured biological signal is in a stable range or a risk range, The nurse's assistant is only assisted by some of the duties of the nurse.

On the other hand, an autonomous mobile intelligent robot technology that can be implemented by applying the above functions has been developed and used. The autonomous mobile intelligent robot measures the distance traveled by each wheel by using a laser scanner mounted on a wheel during traveling, The position change of each small section is calculated and the present position is calculated from the initial position. Its function is extremely limited, and since the actual obstacle recognition rate is low, the realization of the autonomous movement is extremely limited in the room.

Such a conventional autonomous mobile intelligent robot typically has the following problems.

First, there is no autonomous navigation function.

Second, there are many limitations to the mission performance because there is no simple dialogue function with people.

Third, the autonomous movement and the active adaptation of the external environment are too limited.

Therefore, a very autonomous and intelligent wardroom helper robot system solving these problems will be required.

On the other hand, an example of robots applied to hospitals is a patient bed equipped with a helper robot of Korean Registered Patent No. B1-1181058 (2012.09.07.), Which is composed of a base frame equipped with a bed wheel, A patient bed including a base and a support frame provided between the base frame and the bed and a bed fixed to the base frame, And a control unit for driving the electric wheels when the electric wheels are brought into contact with the ground surface after the electric wheels are rotated and the electric lift unit is moved in the downward direction. The electric transporting unit is driven by a motor Connect the helper robot and move it to the motor when moving the patient's bed. When the helper robot is not in contact with the ground, it is possible to manually adjust the respective manual elevating portions to make contact between the helper robot and the ground. So that the patient bed can be smoothly moved.

Another example is a transportation assistant robot of Korean Registered Patent No. B1- 10-1272389 (June 3, 2013), which is provided between an upper plate and a base plate to receive a motorized force, A second motor provided at one side of the motor-driven lifting unit to provide a power to the motor-driven lifting unit, an electric wheel provided at a lower portion of the base plate and rotatably driven by the motor, And a controller for controlling the driving of the electromagnet wheel and the electromagnet wheel. The controller is located inside the conveying means including the frame for the patient, and is connected to the controller by adjusting the height of the frame. The transporting means is moved by the electric power so that the user who wants to move the transporting means can move the transporting means So that it can be done.

However, the helper robot used in the conventional hospital provides simple functions such as the ability to easily move the bed, and thus fails to provide functionality that assists doctors, nurses, and the like.

KR 101181058 B1 2012.09.07. KR 101272389 B1 2013.06.07.

Disclosure of Invention Technical Problem [8] Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a nurse's job in a hospital by transmitting a chart to a doctor, The purpose of the robot is to provide a robot-assistant robot.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, A driving unit configured to be in contact with the ground like a general mobile robot; A mechanical part including a head part and an arm part coupled to the upper part of the driving part; A sensor unit installed on the front, rear, right, and left sides of the mechanical unit; And a control unit built in the rear side of the mechanism unit.

Wherein the sensor unit comprises an ultrasonic sensor and an LCD terminal with a control program embedded therein; Wherein the ultrasonic sensor is provided in the main frame of the mechanical part and is detected by the ultrasonic sensor so that presence or absence of an obstacle can be determined within a predetermined distance and transmitted to the controller; When a nurse enters a lake in a room, the robot senses the sensor attached to the floor through an ultrasonic sensor and moves to the autonomous running to check the lake of the room. The hand is controlled by a stepping motor, So that the user can handle the task through the conversation by voice recognition.

The LCD terminal with the control program installed therein is installed at the front part of the upper end of the mechanism section and is capable of storing the indoor environment information of the hospital and performing a simple dialog function by voice recognition; When the user inputs the lake of the patient room stored in the LCD terminal through the remote controller, the user can transmit the medicine to the patient and the chart necessary during the rounding to the doctor.

The head portion being configured to include a camera, a speaker, and a microphone; The camera is installed at an upper portion of the head, recognizes an image, stores the position of the indoor unit when the indoor map is created, enables autonomous navigation, and transmits the recognized image wirelessly to a control unit installed inside the mechanism unit ; Wherein the speaker is installed on both sides of the head and includes a unit capable of recognizing a voice to provide a voice message when a simple conversation is performed by voice recognition with a person; The microphone is installed on the lower side of the camera like a mouth on the head and has a function of communicating with a person so that a simple dialog function is added to the patient or the doctor when the object is delivered; The conversation contents and voice can be wirelessly transmitted and received to the control unit.

The arm portion is composed of an arm joint, an arm link, a wrist joint, a hand, and a finger; Wherein the arm joint is coupled at one end to both sides of the main frame of the mechanism portion and at the other end to the arm link; The arm link being rotatably coupled to the hand by a wrist joint; Wherein the hand is provided with finger-shaped fingers; The finger is configured to rotate by a stepping motor controlled by a control unit to knock the door of the patient room.

The mechanism section includes a main frame, a variable structure frame, a height adjustment button, a task completion button, and a power button; Wherein the mechanism unit includes a main frame having a variable structure frame downwardly adjustable in height of the robot; A height adjustment button for adjusting the height of the robot is installed under the LCD terminal attached to the main frame; When the height adjustment button is pressed once, the robot can be adjusted to the height adjusted autonomously by the control unit based on the information received from the camera, and the gear is installed inside the variable structure frame so that the robot can be returned to its original position when pressed again ; Press the job completion button to return the patient as it is after the delivery of the goods; In the main frame, a sensor unit for detecting an obstacle is installed, and a driving unit for moving by avoiding an obstacle is installed under the variable structure frame and a control unit is built in.

The driving part is coupled under the variable structure frame of the mechanical part; The three wheels of the Omni drive system are coupled under the variable structure frame of the mechanism so that the robot can be operated and stopped by remote control of the remote controller and can rotate 360 degrees in place; And a charging terminal is provided behind the driving unit.

The control unit includes a main controller, a control board, a host PC, and an unmanned autonomous transmitting / receiving unit, which is configured to integrally control the sensor unit, the driving unit, and the mechanical unit as a whole. Directing; The control method is PC based (S / W) control, and it is equipped with intelligent control function which can control obstacle avoidance, control finger of the arm part, and height of the variable structure frame of the mechanism part. ; The main controller of the control unit for processing data transmitted / received from the ultrasonic sensor installed in the sensor unit is a PC-based open control structure for controlling the servo control, and is composed of a control S / W based on C ++ and a DSP based controller RS232C, and RS485 autonomous transmission / reception.

Embodiments of the present invention can be used to move the patient to a patient's room or other position based on the location and environment information of a patient who is inconvenient or needing help, deliver the medication to the patient, This is because it is possible to assist the nurse in the hospital for simple repetitive tasks.

In addition, the ward-room assistant robot of the present invention has an effect of responding to the situation of the patient by adjusting the height of the robot system by pressing a button according to circumstances.

1 is a front view showing a wardroom helper robot according to the present invention;
Fig. 2 is a rear view of the present invention shown in Fig. 1

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an embodiment of a wardroom helper robot provided by the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof, and it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. However, a detailed description of known configurations and functions that may unnecessarily obscure the gist of the present invention will be omitted.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a schematic view showing a wardrobin robot according to the present invention; The headrest 20, the arm 30, the mechanism 40, the driving unit 50, the control unit 60, and the controller 60. The sensor unit 10, the head 20, Like a general mobile robot, a driving unit 50 is provided on the ground and a head unit 20 and a mechanism unit 40 including an arm unit 30 are coupled to the driving unit 50, 40, the sensor unit 10 is located at the front, rear, left, and right sides, and the control unit 60 is built inside the rear side of the mechanism unit.

First, the sensor unit 10 of the present invention will be described with reference to Fig. The sensor unit 10 may include an ultrasonic sensor 11 and an LCD terminal 12 having a control program.

The ultrasonic sensor 11 is mounted on the main frame 41 of the mechanism 40 and sensed by the ultrasonic sensor 11. The ultrasonic sensor 11 can determine the presence of an obstacle within a predetermined distance, As shown in Fig. When the nurse inputs a remote control room, the robot detects the sensor attached to the floor through the ultrasonic sensor 11 and moves to the self-running to check the lake of the room. The robot is provided with the stepping motor It is possible to knock the door of the patient's room using the hand 31 to be controlled and process the work through conversation by voice recognition.

The LCD terminal 12 in which the control program is embedded is installed in the front part of the upper part of the mechanism unit 40 and enables simple conversation function by storing the hospital indoor environment information and voice recognition. When a lake of a patient room stored in the LCD terminal 12 is input through a remote controller, the patient can provide a medicine to be administered, a chart required during a round, etc. to the doctor.

Next, the head 20 will be described.

The head unit 20 may include a camera 21, a speaker 22, and a microphone 23.

The camera 21 is installed at an upper portion of the head 20, and when the indoor map is created by recognizing an image, the camera 21 can store its position and enable autonomous navigation. The camera 21 preferably has a function of 3,000,000 pixels or more and can transmit and receive the recognized image to the control unit 60 installed inside the mechanism unit 40 wirelessly.

In addition, the speaker 22 may be installed on both sides of the head 20, and a unit capable of recognizing the voice may be incorporated. The speaker 22 can provide a voice message or the like when a simple conversation is performed by voice recognition with a person.

Further, the microphone 23 may be installed on the lower side of the camera 21 like a mouth on the head 20, and may have a function of communicating with a person. That is, it is preferable that a simple dialog function is added to the patient or the doctor when delivering the goods.

Of course, it is natural that such conversation contents and voice are configured to be wirelessly transmitted and received to the control unit 60. [

For reference, the head 20 is preferably rotatably coupled to the upper portion of the robot 40.

Next, the arm portion 30 will be described.

The arm 30 may include an arm joint 31, an arm link 32, a wrist joint 33, a hand 34, and a finger 35.

One end of the arm joint 31 is fixedly coupled to both sides of the main frame 41 of the mechanical part 40. And is coupled to the arm link 32 at the other end. Since the arm joint 31 has the same structure and function as the joint of the general robot, a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

A hand 34 is rotatably coupled to the arm link 32 by a wrist joint 33. At this time, the hand 34 is provided with a finger-shaped finger 36, and the finger 36 may be rotated by a stepping motor controlled by the control unit 60 to knock the door of the patient's room.

Next, the mechanism unit 40 will be described.

1, the mechanism unit 40 includes a sensor unit 10 including an ultrasonic sensor 11, an LCD terminal 12, and an arm joint 31 (see FIG. 1), to which a wheel 51 of the driving unit 50 is coupled. An arm link 30 composed of an arm link 32, a wrist joint 33, a hand 34 and a finger 35 may be combined.

The mechanism unit 40 may include a main frame 41, a variable structure frame 42, a height adjustment button 43, a task completion button 44, and a power button 45.

In the mechanical part 40, a variable structure frame 42 is provided below the main frame 41 to adjust the height of the robot. A height adjustment button 43 for adjusting the height of the robot is installed under the LCD terminal 12 attached to the main frame 41. When the height adjustment button 43 is pressed once, the robot is enlarged to a height that is autonomously optimized by the controller 60 based on information received from the camera 21, and is returned to the original position when pressed again. This allows the gears to be installed inside the variable structure frame 42 to be adjusted. Also, by pressing the job completion button 44, the patient can be returned to the patient as it is. The main frame 41 is provided with a sensor unit 10 for detecting an obstacle and a drive unit 50 capable of moving by avoiding obstacles is installed under the variable structure frame 34 and a control unit 60 .

Next, the driving unit 50 will be described.

The driving unit 50 may be configured to include a wheel 51 and a charging terminal 52 under the variable structure frame 42 of the mechanical unit 40 as shown in FIGS.

The driving unit 50 includes an Omni driving type 3 (hereinafter, referred to as " Omni driving type ") that is coupled under the variable structure frame 42 of the mechanism unit 40 and is capable of rotating 360 degrees in place so that the robot can be operated and stopped by remote control remote control. Wheels 51 are coupled. And a charging terminal 52 is provided behind the driving unit 50. [

Next, the control unit 60 will be described.

Referring to FIG. 2, the controller 60 includes a main controller, a control board, a host PC, an unmanned autonomous controller Transmission / reception device, etc., and it instructs all situations recognition, response, autonomous movement, obstacle avoidance, and the like.

The control method includes the obstacle avoidance control, the control of the finger 36 provided on the arm unit 30, and the height control of the variable structure frame 42 of the mechanical unit 40 by controlling the PC based (S / W) With the intelligent control function as possible, the scope of application is flexible.

The main controller of the control unit 60 for processing data transmitted and received from the ultrasonic sensor 11 installed in the sensor unit 10 is a PC-based open control structure for performing servo control, Controller (H / W), and is capable of RS232C and RS485 autonomous transmission / reception communication.

Therefore, the ward assistant robot 1 can autonomously drive the ward assistant robot 1 by recognizing the accurate position and environment information through wireless communication with the main controller of the controller 60 that controls each motor and the remote controller.

It is to be understood that the detailed description of the present invention has been provided for specific embodiments, but it is to be understood that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of protection of the present invention should not be limited to the embodiments described, but should be determined by the equivalents as well as the following claims.

1: robot assistant robot
10: Sensor unit
11: ultrasonic sensor 12: LCD terminal
20: Head
21: camera 22: speaker
23: microphone
30:
31: arm joint 32: arm link
33: Wrist joint 34: Hand
35: finger
40:
41: main frame 42: variable structure frame
43: height adjustment button 44: work completion button
45: Power button
50:
51: wheel 52: charging terminal
60:

Claims (8)

1. A wardroom assistant robot (1), comprising:
A driving unit 50 configured to be in contact with the ground like a general mobile robot;
A mechanical part 40 including a head part 20 and an arm part 30 coupled to the upper part of the driving part 50;
A sensor unit 10 installed on the front, rear, left, and right sides of the mechanism unit 40;
And a control unit (60) installed inside the rear surface of the mechanism unit (40). The method of claim 1,
The sensor unit 10 comprises an ultrasonic sensor 11 and an LCD terminal 12 having a control program embedded therein;
The ultrasonic sensor 11 is installed in the main frame 41 of the mechanism 40 and is detected by the ultrasonic sensor 11. The ultrasonic sensor 11 can determine presence or absence of an obstacle within a predetermined distance, To do;
When the nurse inputs a lake in the room, the robot senses the sensor attached to the floor through the ultrasonic sensor 11 and moves to the self-running to check the lake of the room. The robot is controlled by the stepping motor And the knob of the patient room is knocked by using the hand (31) to be able to process work through conversation by voice recognition. The method of claim 2,
The LCD terminal 12 with the control program installed therein is installed at the front part of the upper end of the mechanism unit 40 and is capable of storing the hospital indoor environment information and performing a simple dialog function by voice recognition;
When the user inputs the lake of the patient room stored in the LCD terminal 12 through the remote controller, the user can transmit the medicine to be used by the patient, the chart required during the round, etc. to the doctor. The head 20 is configured to include a camera 21, a speaker 22, and a microphone 23;
The camera 21 is installed at the upper part of the head 20 and allows the self-navigation to be stored when the indoor map is created by recognizing an image, and the recognized image is wirelessly transmitted to the inside To the control unit 60 installed in the control unit 60;
The speaker (22) is installed on both sides of the head (20), and a unit capable of recognizing a voice is built in, and provides a voice message when a simple conversation is performed by speech recognition with a person;
The microphone 23 is installed on the lower side of the camera 21 like a mouth on the head 20 and has a function of communicating with a person so that a simple dialog function is added to the patient or the doctor and;
Wherein the conversation contents and the voice are transmitted and received to the control unit (60) wirelessly.
The method of claim 1,
The arm portion 30 is composed of an arm joint 31, an arm link 32, a wrist joint 33, a hand 34, and a finger 35;
The arm joint 31 has one end coupled to both sides of the main frame 41 of the mechanical part 40 and the other end coupled to the arm link 32;
A hand 34 is rotatably coupled to the arm link 32 by a wrist joint 33;
The hand 34 is provided with a finger-shaped finger 36;
Wherein the finger (36) is configured to be rotated by a stepping motor controlled by the controller (60) to knock the door of the patient room. The method of claim 1,
The mechanism unit 40 includes a main frame 41, a variable structure frame 42, a height adjustment button 43, a task completion button 44, and a power button 45;
The mechanism unit 40 includes a main frame 41 having a variable structure frame 42 downwardly adjustable in height of the robot,
A height adjustment button 43 for adjusting the height of the robot is installed under the LCD terminal 12 attached to the main frame 41;
When the height adjustment button 43 is pressed once, the variable structure frame 42 (see FIG. 4) is configured to be able to return to the original position by increasing the height of the robot autonomously optimized by the control unit 60 based on information received from the camera 21 A gear is installed inside and adjustable;
The job completion button 44 is pressed to return the patient as it is after the delivery of the goods;
The main frame 41 is provided with a sensor unit 10 for detecting an obstacle and a drive unit 50 capable of moving by avoiding an obstacle is installed under the variable structure frame 34 and a control unit 60 is built in It features a wardrobe helper robot.
The method of claim 1,
The driving unit 50 is coupled under the variable structure frame 42 of the mechanical unit 40,
Three wheels 51 of the Omni driving type, which are coupled under the variable structure frame 42 of the mechanism part 40 and can rotate 360 degrees in place so that the robot can be operated and stopped by the remote control remote control, Bonded;
And a charging terminal (52) is provided behind the driving part (50).
The method of claim 1,
The control unit 60 includes a main controller, a control board, a host PC, an autonomous autonomous transmission / reception device, and the like for integrally controlling the sensor unit 10, the driving unit 20, and the mechanical unit 30, Arrange all situation awareness, response, autonomous movement, obstacle avoidance;
The control method is based on the PC-based (S / W) control so that obstacle avoidance control, control of the finger 36 provided on the arm 30, and height control of the variable structure frame 42 of the mechanical part 40 With the intelligent control function that can be applied to the object to be flexible;
The main controller of the control unit 60 for processing data transmitted and received from the ultrasonic sensor 11 installed in the sensor unit 10 is a PC-based open control structure for performing servo control, And a controller (H / W), and is configured to be capable of autonomous transmission / reception communication with RS232C and RS485.

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