The Design of the TransferBot - A Robotic Assistant for Patient Transfers and Repositioning

The Design of the TransferBot

  Spinal cord injuries leave patients in a struggle to avoid and recover from pressure ulcers. Meanwhile, back injuries from lifting-related activities such as manually repositioning or providing transfers for their patients lead all causes of workers" compensation claims by nurses, physical therapists and other clinicians in developed countries around the world. This paper describes the creation and clinical testing of the TransferBot, a robotic assistant device for the swift and safe repositioning and transfer of clinical patients with severe mobility impairments. Targeted to assist nurses as well as their patients, the TransferBot uses powerful hydraulics together with a web of sensors and novel user interface technologies to accomplish both goals at once. An affordable robotic solution to effortlessly enable clinicians to provide safe, timely and dependable transfers for their patients could significantly reduce the number of pressure ulcers for those with spinal cord injuries as well as paralysis, obesity, amputation and others. Our objective is to dramatically improve patient care by lowering the incidence of pressure ulcers, while bringing caregivers in line with government-recommended safe lifting guidelines at the same time, with the same device.