MediBot:

	The MediBot is a robotic doctor’s assistant.  To save a doctor time, the robot will prep a patient before actually seeing a doctor.  The robot will take a patients weight, height, heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature.  The robot has a screen that also will ask patients whether or not they have any pain, and if so, where, and how much it hurts (a scale of 1-10).  The patient will also be asked basic check-up questions.  All of this information is stored in a file under the patient’s name.  When testing, the patient’s identity will be stored as “Patients 1”, “Patient 2”, etc.  The robot will have a step that leads to a platform, which has a digital scale, which measures the patient.  The value will be sent to the main processing unit, which will put the weight value into the document.  The robot will also have a device for measuring the height of the patient.  The robot will measure the height of the patient by using a single proximity sensor mounted about 7 feet off the base of the robot where the patient is standing.  It will be facing down so it will measure the distance from the patient to the actual sensor, and then subtract that number from the height at which the sensor is mounted.  This value will be stored as a double (using as many decimals as possible for accuracy) and will be sent back to the main processing unit.  Their will be a platform which holds a keyboard, mouse, digital heart rate sensor, digital blood pressure sensor, and a digital body temperature sensor.  All of these components will test different values one at a time and then report the values back to the main processing unit.  To match the user’s height, the monitor will tilt up and down using a servo motor.  The monitor will have an IR sensor on the very top, which will detect the very top of the patient’s head, and will move the monitor accordingly.  To complete this task, the monitor will start totally panned down, and work it’s way up until the IR sensor (which is attached to the very top of the monitor; when the monitor pans, so does the IR sensor) detects the patient is at a certain distance (the patients head), where it will stop.  The robot will display instructions on the monitor.  As each task is completed, the robot will display what the patient should do, along with simple pictures for clarification.  First, the robot will tell the patient to step onto the scale.  It will then set the monitor to the correct angle for the patient.  Then, it will display that it is taking the weight of the patient.  To get complete accuracy, it will tell the patient to wait on the platform for 3 seconds standing still.  Once completed, the robot will display, “Now taking height.  Please look forward, stand straight, and hold still”.  Then after the robot has taken the height, it will (one by one) get the patients heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature.  The robot will be using the E-Health shield for the Arduino and raspberry pi, which is mounted on top of the raspberry pi to Arduino conversion shield.  The robot will first ask the patient to place their finger inside of the heart rate sensor (along with pictures shown on the screen) and wait until a number (showing the heart rate) appears on the screen.  The robot will then tell the patient to move onto the next step.  Next, the robot will be getting the patient’s temperature.  The screen will then tell the patient step by step how to put the temperature sensor onto their finger (along with the use of pictures) and the robot will get the temperature of the patient.  Once the robot receives the value, it will store it in the patients file as a double, also to receive the greatest accuracy.  Lastly, the screen will tell the patient to place their arm inside of the blood pressure sensor, specifically placing it on their wrist.  The monitor will also show a picture of this.  Then, the screen will tell the patient to place their elbow on the platform, while holding their hand out parallel to where their heart is.  A picture for this will be provided as well.  Then they will be told to press the “On/Off” button and the sensor will take their blood pressure.  Once the blood pressure is taken, the value will be sent to the main processing unit, and stored as a double in the patients file.  Once all of the patient’s vitals are taken, they will be asked basic check up questions on the screen.  A keyboard/mouse will allow the patient to input answers.  The first question will ask, “Are you experiencing any pain that you would like the doctor to know about?  Yes or no?”  If yes, the patient will be asked, “Where are you experiencing pain?” and will be allowed to input a word where they feel pain.  Then the robot will ask, “On a scale from one to ten, how much does the pain hurt?”  Next, the patient will be asked, “Do you have any allergies?”  The user will be given a choice “Yes”, “No”, or “I do not know”.  If the answer is yes, they will be prompted to type in anything they are allergic to.  Next, the user will be asked, “Are you allergic to any medication?”  Similarly, the patient will answer either “Yes”, “No”, or “I don’t know”.  If the answer is yes, they will be prompted to type in any medications they are allergic to.  Subsequently, the patient will be asked if they are taking any medications.  The patient can answer either yes or no.  If yes, they can type in the medications they are taking, each separated by spaces.  The patient will lastly be asked, “Is their anything else that you would like the doctor know about while you are here?”  The patient can also answer either yes or no.  If yes, they will type in the box what their concerns are.  The patient will then be told that the process is complete and that they can step off of the base platform.  A timer that is running during the entire progress will then stop and store the value in the patient’s data file.

For the study, I will take the data received by the nurse or doctor and compare it to the received by the robot.  Each patient’s name will not be disclosed, nor will any personal information concerning the patient’s identity.  The only pieces of data that need to be received are as follow: Weight, height, heart rate, body temperature, blood pressure, and medical questions regarding overall health concerns, medications, and allergies.  The data received by the doctor will be compared to the robot’s data and will be tested for accuracy.  The doctor’s tests will be used as a control.  The time taken for the doctor to receive this data will also be compared to the time taken for the robot to receive this data.