Robots to transport food, more at new SF hospital

SAN FRANCISCO — Meet Eve, a short, refrigerator-wide robot. While it doesn't have arms, or a head, its portly frame can haul heavy loads, dispense supplies and travel long distances.

Eve is one of 25 autonomous robots programmed to help the staff of San Francisco's newest hospital. When the University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center at Mission Bay opens on February 1, Eve and its comrades will be cruising the corridors to bring supplies to and from the pharmacy, kitchen, lab and stock rooms.

Although nearly 160 other hospitals employ robots like Eve, UCSF has the world's biggest fleet. That size fits the scale of the new Medical Center: an 800,000-square-foot, 289-bed facility spanning the equivalent of nearly three football fields. Just a couple of blocks from the San Francisco Bay, the spanking-new hospital comes equipped with all sorts of cutting-edge gear, like autonomous robots.

Eve is programmed with the Medical Center's floor plan and architecture, so it knows the best routes throughout the hospital. Built by Aethon, of Pittsburgh, these robots are designed to assist humans rather than replace them. UCSF personnel formerly tasked with delivery will be moved into other positions.

"Tissue samples, blood samples need to get from point A to point B very fast. You can't afford to wait for someone to show up," said Ken Goldberg, professor of robotics at University of California at Berkeley. "The robot that never gets distracted, never stops for coffee, could be great for these critical deliveries."

It's in the machine
When most people think of autonomous robots, something like the Roomba vacuum cleaner comes to mind. The shoebox-size disk bumps into furniture and walls as it as it tries to find its way around a room. Eve is far more sophisticated than a Roomba.

It knows every hallway, bench and corner of UCSF's hospital complex, and has been programmed to communicate with six of the building's 20 elevators and hundreds of its doors. Eve also comes equipped with 30 infrared and sonar sensors, one laser and a camera, so that it can tell when someone or something is in front of it.

"Please stand aside," Eve politely says when it confronts such an obstacle.