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MEDICAL AGV
safer daily medication
transport system
Safer Daily Inpatient
Medication Transport
The Medical AGV get rid of the last part of manual medication management (transport) and reach the CLMA standard. The CLMA (Closed Loop Medication Administration) System integrates automated and intelligent systems to completely close the inpatient medication management and administration loop.
Scope
Internship Project
Medical Research Based
About the Company
Founded in 1983, Advantech offers comprehensive system integration, hardware, software, customer-centric design services, as well as global logistics support.
The Internship Project
As the ring graph shows, Advantech is dedicates to reach the standard of CLMA. By using digitalized methods to manage the medication processes, manual management is decreased to its minimum. Several products, including electric security medication box, portable care stations and backstage software, etc, are all important elements for building up CLMA environment. However, the transport section still relies on humanpower, which is a big obstcale keeping Advantech from reaching the CLMA standard. As a result, the goal of our project is to eliminate this gap.
E-Medicine Bin
(small)
E-Medicine Bin
(Large)
AMiS
Mobile Care Station
?
Medical AGV
(Large)
?
Medical AGV
(Small)
Current Products
Electric Medication Bin is a security medication box with RFID sensor. It requires a medical ID card to be opened. With access to the Internet database, every specific box can be opened with its respective ID card. Thus it is nearly impossible to deliver the wrong medicine incorrectly. Amis is a portable carestation which can carry a small E-Medication Bin, enabling the nurse to insert the medication boxes for the inpatients that he/she is in charge of.
Objective
In order to complete the CLMA system, the only part that still needs our attention is the transport section. As a result, our design goal is trying to create a medication AGV (Auto Guided Vehicle) which can replace the manpowered delivery, At the same time, meets the safety regulations and other delivery requirements of the hospital.
Field Study & Interview
In order to understand the actual situation, we went to several hospitals to observe and record the transport processes, including medication and other resources. We get a lot of first-hand information during the field study and Contextual interviews. The transporting system is way more complex than we thought it was. Also, several insights were found during this phase.
 Contextual interviews with general pharmacists were held to find out how the pharmacy works. |  Staff for transporting Batch order. They usually carry two or three wards' quantities at once. |
|---|---|
 Most hospital placed mobile carestation outside the ward due to its huge volume. |  Most medication bins are just normal drawers, which cause insecurity to inpatients drug safety. |
 Most medication bins are just normal drawers, which cause insecurity to inpatients drug safety. |  Electric carts with heavy load, also need to be operated manually. |
 Charging room for electric cart that are used for transporting purpose. |  Chained cart for transporting meals. |
 Rooms for depositing dirty clothes. |
What and When to Transport
There are tons of resource needs to be transported inside a hospital. Different resource has different hierarchy and their deliver schedule also differs greatly.
Problems & Pain Points
After several weeks of field study, we discovered a lot of problems and tried to find out the reasons. Many of them were systematic issues. However, we tried to focus on the medication field, since that always gets the highest priority in every hospital.
Traffic Jam (Batch Order)
Since the daily schedule is fixed, every nursing station will exchange their medication bin with the pharmacy at the same time. As a result, traffic jam is inevitable.
Traffic Jam (On-Line Order)
During day time, lots of visitors or patients are in the hospital, occupying elevators and preventing staff from transporting on-line orders on time.
Lost Connection (Batch Order)
Staff that are in charge of on-line order transportation are always on duty. As a result, it is not easy for nurses to connect them.
Night Shift Disaster (On-Line Order)
Most of the staff are not in the hospital at night. When in emergency, it is really hard to get the medicine transported on time.
Design Specification
Since the medication issue is the top priority, the AGV that we are going to design should focus on medication transportation, including batch orders and on-line orders. Secondly, shifting other resources such as clothes, specimen and documents is also considered. Last but not least, some thought is put on design structures that can adapt and drag the existing carts in the hospital.
Iteration
Scaling models are created during these phases. Existing products such as AMiS and electric medication bins can be 3D printed, design objectives such as AGV and functional carts are made of fome boards.
Final Proposal
The final concept comes out with a series of products that share the same movement (AGV). With special connecting structures, AGV can drop the detachable electric medicine bins and leave for the next mission. In addition, the AGV can also drag existing carts as long as they are equipped with connecting accessories.
Pick up Batch Order form the pharmacy
Leave medication bin at the nursing station
Next mission
(Such as on-line order)
Small Medication Bin
Suitable for transporting important things in small amounts, such as on-line orders, specimens or classified documents.
Large Medication Bin
Transporting daily batch orders for a single nursing station.
Existing Carts
With connecting accessories. AGV can transport more than just medication.
 The AGV shares the same design with the electric security medication bin, including the shape and the color. They look matches perfectly when connected together. |  A laser projector and turing signs (as the yellow part in the figure) are important indicators for AGV to inform people in advance about its moving path. |  A laser projector and turing signs (as the yellow part in the figure) are important indicators for AGV to inform people in advance about its moving path. |
|---|---|---|
 Details between AGV and Medication Bin |  The AGV is able to transport not only the electric medication bin, but also other existing carts in the hospital. |
Life-size Prototyping
The dimension is based on actual AGV movements that Advantech bought for this early design project. With this model, we put special care into checking that the visual ratio was correct.
Two Months Team Project
Yojack Shih - Research, CAD, Rendering, Prototype
Larry Yang - Research, Graphic
Kevin Shih - Research, Marketing
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