Scottish Hospital to Employ Team of Robot Workers
A hospital in Scotland has become the first in the UK to use robots on its staff.
Forth Valley Royal hospital is the first hospital in the UK to have robots on staff, doing day-to-day work. The BBC reports that a fleet of robots is being tested before the $445 million ($300 million) facility opens at the end of the summer. The team of machines is comprised of both 'clean' and 'dirty' robots, which will carry out their respective clean and dirty tasks without ever crossing paths.
The robots will be in place to carry clinical waste, deliver food, clean the operating theatre and dispense drugs. With their own special network of corridors underneath the hospital, these robots will be able to stay out of the way of doctors and nurses. By using separate elevators, robots performing clean tasks won't ever come across robots performing dirty tasks, which is a huge advantage in controlling infection.
NHS Forth Valley chairman Ian Mullen told the BBC that the new hospital would be "packed full of design features to improve patient care and improve the life of staff."
"Members of staff will use a hand-held PDA to call up the robot to move meal trays, or linen, or whatever. The robot will come up in the service lift by itself, pick up the item and go back into the lift."
Project manager Tom McEwen, who works at manufacturing company Serco, says that the robots will follow a set of pre-designed routes using laser beams which tell the robot it's position in the hospital. The machines can tell doors to open and sensors will let the robot know if a person or thing is in the way.
Though the idea is that the robots will free up staff so they can spend more time with patients, there will be 'at least one human' on hand should one of the robots break down.
- Microsoft Reveals Mobile OS for Business Phones
- First iPhone 4 Camper Already Appears in Dallas
- Google Collected Passwords in Wi-Fi Sweeps
- Exclusive Apple Dating Site Gaining Popularity
- Dry Your Clothes While Grabbing Power From Wind
- Quintetto Creates Fish-Driven Music
- Assassin's Creed Brotherhood: The CGI Trailer
- Open Source DIY Tablet Kit Promises Versatility
- New Xbox 360 Literally Can't Red Ring of Death
- OnLive Gaming Service Launches; 1st Year is Free
- Verizon Teases the Droid X: 720p Video, HDMI
- GoldenEye Gets Wii Remake; Old Bond Gets Cut
- 3-Fold Laptop Promises Good Display Ergonomics
- Working Vortex Cannon Spews Gas out at 200kph
- The Battery Charger That's Good For You
- Tron Controllers to Debut for Xbox, Wii, PS3
- Filmmaker Personally Tracks Down Movie Pirate
- Droid Vs. Droid 2, A Side-By-Side Comparison
- Mortal Kombat is Coming Back in Old-school Form
Oh crap, remember the robot doctor in Fallout 3? Yea, she's got the flu and it cut her leg and she died.
^ sliem read my mind. "Calculating...calculating....patient requires 2 gallons of morphine..." I smell disaster, then lawsuit, then fear of robot takeover.
On the bright side, the robots should have a much better bedside manner than some of the nurses and doctors I've met.
I, for one, welcome our new robot orderly overlords.
hah the robots might be clean... but what about the nurses
im sure there will be situations were the interaction with humans will take please and negligence prevails. That what... you get assumptions... that the robots are clean and that assumption goes on and you get the picture 
at least people do wash up once in a while... but do those robots have a chamber to be sterilized once in a while or whatever the process is... if not... the future holds lots of lawsuits
also last time i checked robots still have fluids that they run on... what about having all that contained properly... fail to see how this will work in the long run, not to mention the costs of maintenance... oh btw while nurses are underpaid and they spend nearly half a billion on these...
This is clear discrimination. What, do they have seperate robot drinking fountains too? Separate is not equal! We demand robot integration!
This sound racist against the robots.
Sure we should hire a few thousand T100 Terminator units for border patrol. We even got fresh water pirates. lol wtf? o.O
Oh well there is means of non nuclear EMP.
Great,Now that means even less jobs for us humans. Is the work force not scarce enough? MADNESS.
Great,Now that means even less jobs for us humans. Is the work force not scarce enough? MADNESS.
Gotta make your own income; we're not in the industrial age anymore.
Shit sucks (if you think it does), but there's always opportunity to be found in change.
Yhô dingdongh654 stop being retarded!!!! Ever eard Google Ads???
When will Tom ban this guy???
"They took our jrrbs"!?! jk i work in a hospital and anything too free us up so we can care for the patients is welcome in my book.
sounds like the beginning of a bad horror movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGoi1MSGu64
I'm willing to bet surgical robots will be around pretty soon. Human bodies are all fairly similar inside. Program in certain measurements, and hand it a knife.
China already has robot workers....oh wait,no,there humans.....
The government is slashing budgets everywhere (yes I am from the UK), and yet we are trialing a £1/3bn robot project.
I am saddened that university fees will go up, and investment in science down, while quangos and this stuff continues.
this is stupid. patients now will have a number or a bar code or something. Instead of a name.hospitals need to be more humane. machines can't do that.
Having a robot take away the tray so the nurse can stay and talk to the patient is inhumane?
It's called progress, bitches, look it up, it's kinda cool. It means we can focus man hours on where they are actually needed.
ppl are way cheaper then robots... I don't wanna know how much cleaning personnel you could employ for the cost of those robots and tunnels. And I'm sure there are costly support contracts for long term care of those robots cause they have to be repaired and stuff.
do not fear, there will be no rebellion due to the 3 laws of robotics
do not fear, there will be no rebellion due to the 3 laws of robotics
Unless you follow the logic pattern of Irobot. Wherein the robots take over control of things in order to "protect" us.
They should rename the "Comments" section for "Trolling" section... ¬¬