Vacuum Probe Robotic Arm for Automated Medication Dispensing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Elderly patients with limited cognitive and physical abilities face challenges in accurately and timely taking multiple medications, as existing automated systems are cumbersome, expensive, and limited in their ability to grip and handle various medication forms.
Innovation Solution
A medication dispensing system featuring a carousel with storage and dispensing bins, a robotic arm with a vacuum probe that securely grips medications, and a computer controller for programmed dispensing, allowing for efficient transfer and storage of multiple medications over a month, ensuring timely and accurate administration.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If a vacuum system with probe is used to pick up pills from storage compartments, then automated medication dispensing is achieved, but the system requires chutes immediately adjacent to storage compartments and has limited ability to grip pills for sufficient periods of time
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the medication transfer function from the storage compartment location and performs it at a centralized dispensing location. The robotic arm with vacuum probe picks up pills from storage compartments and transports them to a separate dispensing location, eliminating the need for chutes immediately adjacent to each storage compartment.
Solution Approach 2:
The robotic arm with vacuum probe serves as an intermediary between storage compartments and the dispensing location. Instead of direct transfer via chutes, the robotic arm mediates the transport of medications, allowing for more flexible system design and better grip control.
2Measurement precision
If multiple medications are stored and dispensed systematically, then medication accuracy is improved, but the system requires a robotic arm with vacuum probe and computer controller
Solution Approach 1:
The vacuum probe is designed with a bellows portion and flexible vacuum cup that can adapt to grip various sizes and shapes of medications. This universal gripping mechanism allows the same robotic arm system to handle different medications accurately without requiring multiple specialized tools.
Solution Approach 2:
The computer controller system monitors and controls the robotic arm's movements and the vacuum probe's gripping action. This feedback control ensures precise medication pickup and placement, maintaining high dispensing accuracy while managing the complexity of the robotic system.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the vacuum cup has an articulated body with bellows portion, then the ability to firmly grip various medication sizes and shapes is improved, but the manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The vacuum cup utilizes a flexible bellows portion made from elastomeric material that can deform to conform to different medication shapes and sizes. This flexibility is achieved through the bellows structure with multiple circumferential folds, allowing the same cup design to adaptively grip various medications without complex customization.
Solution Approach 2:
The bellows portion allows the vacuum cup to change its physical parameters (shape, volume, surface area) dynamically during the gripping process. When the vacuum probe contacts a medication, the bellows compress and expand to match the medication's geometry, providing firm grip across different medication types.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system ensures timely and accurate dispensing of medications, reducing the burden on patients and caregivers by securely handling various medication forms and eliminating the need for manual reminders, while being cost-effective and easy to use.
Implementation Method 1
a vacuum inducing system... when the vacuum end of the vacuum cup is positioned by the probe to engage a surface of a dosage of medication upon initiation of the vacuum inducing system the vacuum end of the vacuum cup firmly holds the dosage of medication
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed is an invention for dispensing multiple medications to a patient over an extended period of days up to several times a day. The system includes a carousel with storage bins and a delivery bin on its periphery. A vacuum system and a vacuum probe with a vacuum cup at the end of the probe for grasping and holding by an induced vacuum a dosage of medication located in a storage bin and moving it to a dispending or delivery bin. The system includes a programmable computer to control the system and sequence the proper dispensing of the medication at the predesignated times.