Conceptual Design of Universal Autonomous Platform for Micromobility and Delivery System in the Hospital

Micro mobility is described as either human-powered or electrically-powered vehicle with maximum speed of 25 km/h and weight of less than 500 kg. The hospital trolleys for delivery of medical supplies are one example of micro mobility. This study introduces the conceptual design of a universal autonomous platform as a replacement for the hospital trolleys to solve the problem of musculoskeletal complaints among the trolley operators. The introduction of the Industry 4.0 concept involving the internet of things (IoT) and the cyber-physical system has made the idea possible to realize. In the first stage, we performed problems seeking ergonomic and design issues on the current trolleys by observation and interview. As expected, manual materials handling (MMH) to operate the trolley manually induces musculoskeletal complaints especially low back pain. The ergonomic problems then analyzed and taken into design consideration thoroughly during the design process. In the design concept, we will eliminate MMH as much as possible by the introduction of an autonomous micro vehicle as a modular platform. The modular platform will be able to accommodate various types of the superstructure to perform the various functions which the current hospital trolleys are serving.