Structural Design and Preliminary Tests of a Novel Patient Transfer Apparatus for Medical Scenarios

Abstract

Patient transfer has always been a difficult problem, usually requiring multiple caregivers to work together, which is time consuming and can easily cause secondary injuries to the patient. In addition, with the crisis of COVID-19, the issue of patient transfer is even more critical, as caregivers are at a high risk of infection, causing significant damage to healthcare resources. In this paper, a patient transfer assist system named E-pat-plus (Easy Patient Transfer plus) has been proposed; it can assist caregivers in transferring patients, reduce direct contact between them, and avoid secondary injuries. In the mechanical structure of this apparatus, a novel five-gear assembly module and a synchronous belt pulley set are proposed; they are the key points to the basic functional realization of the device and can reduce the cost of the prototype. Furthermore, a fuzzy (proportion-integration-differentiation) PID-based cross-coupling control strategy is applied to the apparatus to ensure the stability and safety of the operation. Finally, some preliminary experiments, including current experiments and error experiments, are carried out to verify the reliability of the device and lay the foundation for clinical tests.

Analysis, Design and Experimental Research of a Novel Bilateral Patient Transfer Robot

“…The patient transfer part is used to realize the transfer of the patient between the devices, and the moving part of the robot is applied to complete the moving of the patient between different rooms. The products include PowerNurse, designed by Astir Technologies company in the United States [8,9]; C-Pam, developed by DAIHEN company in Japan [10,11]; a patient transfer robot prototype researched by the Institute of Medical Equipment, Academy of Military Medical Sciences of the Chinese People's Liberation Army [12]; a multi-module patient transfer robot prototype, analyzed by Yanshan University [13][14][15]. The patient transfer part of these robots is mostly designed with a multi-module structure, and each module adopts two layers of belt for transmission, the lower layer belt is used for the overall movement and the posture adjustment of the transfer part, and the upper layer belt is used for moving and for posture adjustment of the patient.…”