Mobile robots need to be part of a 'whole-product solution'

Aldo Zini, president of the nation's leading developer of autonomous mobile robots in healthcare, told his fellow executives that mobile robots must be part of a "whole-product solution" if they are to gain relevance and acceptance in the market place. Zini delivered the keynote address at the 2011 RoboBusiness Leadership Summit in Boston.

“Robotics Trends is pleased with the results and community feedback from the 2011 RoboBusiness Leadership Summit”

Speaking before leading robotics executives, engineers and developers from around the country, Zini drew upon his experience at Aethon, which has developed the country's only autonomous mobile robot being broadly used in a commercial environment. More than 400 of Aethon's TUG^® robots can currently be found in 135 hospitals transporting medication, meals, equipment, supplies, linens, lab specimens and more.

"Autonomous mobile robots have not taken hold in real-world commercial environments because most makers of robots haven't identified and developed all of the ancillary products and support systems required to position robots as valuable and relevant solutions to business challenges," Zini said. "Large scale deployment of autonomous mobile robots will occur when individual companies and the industry as a whole learn how to couple current technology with a 'whole product strategy.'"

Zini said that Aethon is an example of a company that has followed this approach by investing significant time and resources into developing the ancillary components and support systems required to provide a whole product solution to hospital logistics. As part of its comprehensive approach, Aethon created a command center to monitor all of the robots 24/7, elevator controller capabilities, intuitive user interfaces, asset tracking and logistics components, and add-on products like MedEx to ensure the safety and security of medication deliveries. "Only after developing all of the products around the core robot platform did the TUGs become a viable solution to solving problems in a hospital environment," noted Zini.

In assessing the state of the robotics industry as a whole, Zini attributed the difficulty in bringing fully autonomous robots to market to four key factors:

• Price points that don't provide a favorable return on investment.
• Challenges coping with and safely navigating unstructured and dynamic environments.
• An inability to cost effectively interface with other business systems, such as elevators, fire alarms, doors, security and IT.
• Lack of understanding of the dynamics involved in human-robot interactions, including workflow, social considerations and environmental factors.

"For autonomous mobile robots to really take hold, they must lower costs, improve service and offer better quality," Zini said.

Richard Erb, managing director of industry leader Robotics Trends, commended Zini on Aethon's achievements at pioneering the broad use of autonomous in a real-world application and of his role in making the Leadership Summit a success. "Robotics Trends is pleased with the results and community feedback from the 2011 RoboBusiness Leadership Summit," he said. "We achieved our primary goals of bringing the industry together, in a face-to-face setting, and providing a content-rich program aimed at accelerating the commercial advancement of robotics and robotic applications."