Healthcare Robot

Background

China is the country with the largest population in the world. But 149 million people in this country are elderly people, which means it accounts for 11 percent of the China’s population. Elderly care has become a thorny issue.

According to the ministry of civil affairs, China will need a minimum of 10 million elderly care workers in the next 10 years. In this situation, the healthcare robot came into being. A healthcare robot can be accompanied by an elderly person who is disable to take care of themselves.

In this post, I will introduce you a healthcare robot named Hua Xiao Tuo made by a Chinese team. Hua Tuo is a famous doctor in ancient China. ‘Xiao’ means small in Chinese and can be used in the nickname. So we called her Hua Xiao Tuo.

We use LattePanda as the main control board. LattePanda is a complete Windows 10 single board computer. If you want to know more about LattePanda, you can click here.

This project is a finalist of the Sino-US maker competition. The team members are all come from Shanghai Tongji University.

What is Hua Xiao Tuo

Hua Xiao Tuo is a small healthcare robot in the ward. She can serve as a nurse, health care workers and family role, responsible for information communication, life care and emotional nursing. She can do the health examination and patiently explained the symptoms to the patient. More importantly, she can make the life in the ward no longer boring.

Scenario

Due to the small size of hospital ward and narrow corridor, Hua Xiao Tuo is designed to be a small and flexible robot and have 3 scenarios.

1.Bed Board Mode

Hua Xiao Tuo can be fixed on the bed board by the rubber between her leg. This mode is suitable for patients to sit up and communicate directly to her.

2.Bedside Table Mode

We designed a base with charging function for Hua Xiao Tuo. So patient can put her on the bedside table and use it easily.

3.Walking Mode

When you hold Hua Xiao Tuo in your hand, she will enter walking mode. She will show you the way to the consulting room.

Mechanical Structure

Hua Xiao Tuo’s appearance is more likely to a human baby. Due to her small size, we need to make the best use of the space in her body. So we decide to make a simple mechanical structure to make her active.

There are two servo motor in her neck. So we can control her head and let her do some simple body language such as nod or shake her head.

Main technology

Intel Realsense technology

Realsense camera is the first camera to integrate 3D depth and 2d Lens modules. It can recognize gesture and facial features accurately and help the machine understand human movements and emotions.

LattePanda

A LattePanda is a complete Windows 10 single board computer. It has everything a regular PC has and can do anything that a regular PC does. It is compatible with almost every gadget you know: printers, joysticks, cameras and more. Any peripherals that work on your PC will work on a LattePanda.

7" 1024 x 600 IPS Display for LattePanda

It’s a nice small screen for LattePanda. Perfect for Hua Xiao Tuo.

Team Member

Team Leader: Yuanyuan Hu

A junior student from Tongji University. Major in industrial design. Mainly responsible for the design of the shell and structure and also tried the development work.

Team Member: Liang He

A junior student from Tongji University. Major in environment design.

Team Member:Yu Liu

A freshman from Tongji University. Major in visual communication design. Mainly responsible for Processing programming.

Team Member: Aijin Ying

A junior student from Tongji University. Major in environment design. Mainly responsible for the design of the interactive script, shell assemble and presentation.

Team Member: Beilei Zhang

A junior student from Tongji University. Major in environment design. Mainly responsible for the robot concept and presentation.

Next Step

They will continue working on it and improve the user experience. They will try to invite more people to experience it. Maybe someday Hua Xiao Tuo will be popularized and used in every hospital.