

The Tug autonomous medical robot - dnetesn
http://www.wired.com/2015/02/incredible-hospital-robot-saving-lives-also-hate/

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cm2012
Wow - this is the first time I've seen a robot like this outside of a
manufacturing environment. I imagine it would be much more difficult to
implement in an existing hospital than one built around it.

I also wonder if its possible to tell if Tug reduces the spread of disease.

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Symmetry
If you can build the hospital around something you might as well sue conveyer
belts or pneumatic tubes. Being able to use existing infrastructure is the big
reason you buy a delivery robot.

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russ519

        (●--●)   - Are you satisfied with your care? 
      //   ♡ \\
      U\＿_ / U
         Ｕ Ｕ

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shostack
My gut says this is just an MVP and there is actually a small person inside
manually doing things and navigating the robot.

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gjkood
No, there is a line in the article that says its been in use since 2009...
"Just down the road in Silicon Valley, El Camino Hospital has been using the
bots since 2009"

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shostack
_-whoosh-_

I was joking.

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gjkood
Sorry Shostack, I was just responding to the MVP part...as for the "small
person"...I was disappointed too...my dream job has always been to be the
heart and soul of a robot.

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shostack
Hah, no worries. Per your point, definitely not an MVP at this stage.

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kaffeemitsahne
It's an autonomously rolling cart, I fail to see why we would need special new
laws for that.

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gjkood
The "autonomous" part is the problem.

Any robot capable of hauling "1000 pounds of linen" would probably be pretty
heavy itself (batteries, motors etc) and can probably crush your toes if it
runs over them, even at low speeds.

I guess that means just adhering to the first law preventing injury to humans.

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jweather
Stanford Hospital was using sample-delivery robots as early as the 90s... I
remember being amazed that they could use the elevators. They were a lot
bigger and clunkier than the TUG, of course, and probably one-off prototypes.

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Symmetry
Our competitor has an article in wired! I'll just say that the QC Bot has the
ability to plan around obstacles it's detected instead of stopping and it has
a friendly touchscreen for giving it directions.

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Yozz
+1 for QCBot, that is one slick robot

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542458
I would absolutely love to see a good human-computer interaction study done at
this hospital.

Also, I wonder how they handle full elevators, or blocked hallways (somebody
left a cart in the way, for example)?

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alextgordon
The future is _cool_.

Only a matter of time before someone figures out how to combine this with Spot
and a legion of four-legged robots start delivering your groceries, mail and
pizza.

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HeyLaughingBoy
Or better yet: [http://www.tacocopter.com](http://www.tacocopter.com)

