- Hospital porters moving hospital beds are at significant risk of exposure to dangerous pathogens (e.g COVID-19) – they are also a significant risk in the onward transmission of infections.
- Optimising use of assets, such as hospital beds, is a key priority and their location and availability is often problematic and Leads to the late delivery of patients for scans and surgery causing a major cost to healthcare providers.
- Manual handling of beds occupied by bariatric patients is increasingly causing strain injuries to hospital staff.
Given these challenges DCE designed and built HELIOS, a robotic bed mover system which allows a hospital bed to automatically follow a healthcare worker around a hospital, removing the need to physically handle the bed. This reduces the risk of cross contamination and exposure to disease, and at the same time minimises the manual handling effort and the risk of physical injury to staff.
There is no standard NHS bed, and as the design of each bed can vary significantly, HELIOS features a unique, variable width actuated scoop mechanism which lifts the castors of the bed. Different scoops, if necessary, can be quicldy swapped out using quick-release pins. This universal design allows HELIOS to attach/detach itself to or from any bed type used in any hospital.
The HELIOS system is designed to manoeuvre a ‘populated’ bed, even up slopes, and can operate in three modes. These three modes enable very precise control of both the robot and the paired robot and bed as well as semi-autonomous behaviour:
- Remote control – robot only
- Remote control – the robot + bed
- ‘Follow-me’ mode – based on latest Ultra-Wideband technology the paired system will follow a user around a hospital environment, sensing and avoiding obstacles
