Challange

Hospitals and care homes are increasingly strained as healthcare staff balance patient care with time-consuming logistical tasks, such as transporting supplies and equipment. These repetitive duties divert staff attention from direct patient care, underscoring the need for a more efficient solution.

Goals

iCaLo provides a fully autonomous logistical system designed to streamline operations in healthcare settings. The project aims to create a complete, end-to-end robotic logistics chain, featuring:

• A logistical base for managing and coordinating tasks across the facility.
• A mobile manipulator capable of navigating and handling tasks, such as transporting supplies.
• Elevator integration that enables robots to move between floors autonomously.

Together, these components will reduce the workload on healthcare staff, enabling them to focus on patient care while robots handle the logistical tasks efficiently.

Contribution HIT

HIT plays a crucial role in the development of iCaLo by creating and testing both the software and hardware needed for the robotic systems. HIT will design, integrate, and fine-tune these systems to ensure they meet the high demands of healthcare environments. Through extensive real-world trials, HIT will validate the functionality and effectiveness of the system, ensuring it is ready for widespread use in hospitals and care homes. By doing so, HIT will help ensure that iCaLo becomes a reliable solution for improving healthcare logistics.

Figure 1 The iCaLo end-to-end integrated Logistic Chain, from warehouse to ward.