Design and Implementation of a Sensor Managing System for Vital Sign Measuring Devices Version 2

Abstract

In an ageing society, there is a growing gap between supply and demand for healthcare services. Robotics researchers are trying to tackle this issue by implementing socially assistive robots in health care. Some robots have been deployed to assist doctors and nurses in hospitals, and others are trialled to provide personal and healthcare services in retirement villages. Using vital signs monitors, such as sphygmomanometers and blood glucose meters, to capture patients’ vital signs is a common procedure for medical diagnosis in hospitals and home health monitoring. Therefore, there should be a domain-specific system for managing medical devices in healthcare robotics. This thesis presents the second version of a sensor managing system designed for healthcare service robots, which manages vital sign measuring devices properly and provides an Application Programming Interface (API) for robotic applications to call the device. The sensor managing system is a distributed system that consists of three subsystems: robot client system, sensor manager system and sensor device system. Each subsystem is independent, but they work cooperatively under a communicating protocol. Trials showed the first version of the sensor managing system has some limitations, for example, the long response time, and the incompatibility with closed control protocol devices (CCPD) which only allow data access from the manufacturer’s server. To overcome these limitations, the second version has new key concepts, such as the API, the sensor device system for CCPD and a GUI. We did functionality experiments, and the result shows that the system response time is shortened significantly and new features are feasible. This thesis also describes a practical application case of the sensor managing system. It is a prototype of the robotic GP (general practitioner) room. This software system is based on the sensor managing system and other robotic systems, such as the RoboGen Server, the Patient Identification System and the Robot Manager System. The aim is to build up a robotic clinic, where robots work as receptionists and medical staffs to provide services for patients.