Germany's healthcare sector suffers from a shortage of nursing staff, and robotic solutions are being explored as a means to provide quality care. While many robotic systems have already been established in various medical fields (e.g., surgical robots, logistics robots), there are only a few very specialized robotic applications in the care sector. In this work, a multi-functional robot is applied in a hospital, capable of performing activities in the areas of transport and logistics, interactive assistance, and documentation. The service robot platform HoLLiE was further developed, with a focus on implementing innovative solutions for handling non-rigid objects, motion planning for non-holonomic motions with a wheelchair, accompanying and providing haptic support to patients, optical recognition and control of movement exercises, and automated speech recognition. Furthermore, the potential of a robot platform in a nursing context was evaluated by field tests in two hospitals. The results show that a robot can take over or support certain tasks. However, it was noted that robotic tasks should be carefully selected, as robots are not able to provide empathy and affection that are often required in nursing. The remaining challenges still exist in the implementation and interaction of multi-functional capabilities, ensuring ease of use for a complex robotic system, grasping highly heterogeneous objects, and fulfilling formal and infrastructural requirements in healthcare (e.g., safety, security, and data protection).
Keywords: deformable objects; healthcare robot; human-robot interaction; motion planning; no-code programming; robotic manipulation; service robotics; smart hospital.
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