Athelas

The Need:

The goal of this project was to alleviate the time, effort, and risk required of assisted living home staff during routine vitals assessments of residents. In nursing homes, common vitals tests check the respiration rate, heart rate, blood oxidation, and body temperature of patients that are particularly at risk. These tests are taken weekly or monthly and are usually done by a designated nurse. However, in the climate of the Coronavirus pandemic, these tests are recommended by the CDC to be done three times a day, thereby taking up the bandwidth of multiple healthcare professionals. These nursing home professionals are taking care of one of the most at-risk populations in the world. But with limited time and resources, it becomes difficult to maintain these vital assessments to the necessary degrees recommended by the CDC.

The Solution:

Athelαs robotic arm design allows for the biological measurements of a patient without the need for them to move or adjust very much. If the patient is sitting upright in front of the table, and their arms are already on a rest (for example, if the patient is in a wheelchair), the robotic arm can accommodate their position utilizing the patient tracking system and algorithm. The robotic arm allows the sensors to come to the patient, align with the patient’s body, then gather the biological measurements. The robotic arm has five degrees of freedom allowing for complete 3D articulation. The sensor data is collected and displayed on the web interface. The arm’s web interface displays the live information and allows for the user to command the arm’s movements. The different sensors give the patient an overview of things they may need to check regularly such as blood pressure, body temperature, heart rate, blood oxygen, heart, and lung audio.