HELPMATE, A SERVICE ROBOT WITH EXPERIENCE

With almost a decade of experience, HelpMate is a material transport s ervice robot that works in hospitals, side-by-side with human co-worke rs, delivering equipment and supplies to and from nursing units. Much has been written about the technology that allows HelpMate to navigate autonomously in such non-structured environments, but little attentio n has been paid to the non-technical aspects of these service applicat ions. What special conditions exist in non-manufacturing environments that a service robot must be able to cope with? How should a service r obot be introduced into such environments? How is such a robot receive d by its fellow human beings? This paper shares the lessons that HelpM ate has learned.