Control systems for Autonomous mobile delivery robots have been described before. However, the control they provide is limited, leaving potential for serious errors. The current mobile robot systems concentrate on position accuracy and operational function but leave open management of safety hazards such as entering the dangerous and not intended areas as stairway. In order to increase the safety of the robot, it is as important to work with sensors installed in the external environment as the sensors installed on the robot. For this purpose, visible light communication (VLC) is a promising device to be used with the robot system. VLC creates an in-house GPS system by installing special LED lights that can replace standard lighting in key locations in the hospital. We have developed an in-hospital transportation robot, called HOSPI in which the control system has been enhanced by combining the navigational sensors of the robot and a VLC using installed lighting in the building. By using VLC, robots can obtain more information about the environment. As the first step for the practical application of VLC to robot system, we use VLC to overcome problems in conventional localization approaches, and to provide an additional line of defense in the case of catastrophic failures. This paper also describes experimental and actual operational results in detail of robots equipped, in an actual hospital, with the described process.

No abstract

We have developed the transfer system that consists of autonomous mobile robots and the multi-robot controller that controls these robots. One of the feature of this system is the efficiency improvement of transportation that has been achieved by the hybrid control with the individual intelligence of autonomous mobile robot and the entire intelligence of mutli-robot control. By introducing this system, a space for the belt conveyer can be reduced, person's traffic line can be secured, and the risk that the entire transfer system stops due to the trouble by only one sensor can be reduced. Moreover, it is possible to correspond to layout changes because the track construction is unnecessary, and the system can be available where the person exists in the transfer area. This system was introduced into BML, INC. as "Blood samples transportation robot system", and these features were proven to be effective by keeping really operating 24 hours. In this paper, the practical use of the developed sysytem is described.

We have developed an autonomous mobile robot which delivers medications in hospitals. We plan to expand its application more and we think we can apply this robot to a hotel and an airport where many people are walking around. There are two main differences between hospital environments and hotel or airport environments. One of them is floor condition and the other is narrow passenger corridor at a hotel and narrow moving space in an airport lounge. In order to apply this robot to these environments the robot needs to have communication function with customers who use this robot. In this paper we describe demonstration contents and results which we carried out in 2017 January and we also show lessons learned which we got in this demonstration.

No abstract