Panasonic's delivery bot has been cleared for hospital work

Panasonic recently received ISO 13482 and First Certification for its Hospi-R robot, permitting it to take on personal care duties in a hospital. According to Panasonic, it’s the first robot of its kind to obtain this combination of safety standards.

The autonomous delivery bot ferries medicine, equipment, and meals to patients by navigating with its cameras, Wi-Fi, and pre-installed maps of the hospital layout. Sensors and a collision-avoidance algorithm keep Hospi-R from running into hospital staff or objects in its path.

It’s even been programmed with bedside manner, greeting patients with an eternally bright pink and smiling visage!

Panasonic's range of Hospi robots are designed to take over drudge work in hospitals — toting around medicine, patients, and performing rote tasks like hair washing. Now, the company's porter bot (the Hospi type R) has been cleared for personal care duties, both in Japan and abroad. Panasonic says it's the first robot in the world to meet this particular combination of safety standards.

Hospi-R is basically a medicine cabinet on wheels, designed to move fragile or bulky medicine and equipment around a hospital. It uses a combination of cameras, Wi-Fi, and preprogrammed maps to navigate around buildings, and is capable of using elevators that have been kitted out with the right hands-free components. (Don't test it on stairs, though.) An ID security card system keeps unauthorized individuals from pilfering its contents, and it moves at a sedate (but not sluggish) one meter a second. Hospi-R has already undergone trials in Singapore, but its new safety certification could see it moving into new territories.

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