Development of smart patient care robot with enhanced autonomous navigation through path optimization in hospital wards

TL;DR

This paper introduces a smart patient-care robot with improved navigation for hospital use, reducing collisions and workload for healthcare staff.

Contribution

The paper introduces virtual obstacle spaces in maps to enhance robot navigation through narrow doorways.

Findings

The robot's navigation success rate improved by over 30%.

The system uses a single sensor and enhanced algorithm for reliable mobility.

The design reduces collisions in narrow hospital environments.

Abstract

This study presents the development of a smart patient-care robot designed to assist healthcare workers by automating routine monitoring tasks and enhancing autonomous mobility in hospital wards. Unlike conventional systems that rely on multiple sensors, the proposed platform achieves reliable navigation using a single two-dimensional light detection and ranging sensor combined with an enhanced D* lite algorithm. A key contribution of this work is the introduction of virtual obstacle spaces in occupancy grid maps, which simplify path planning and significantly increase the success rate of passing through narrow doorways, one of the most collision-prone scenarios in ward environments. Experimental results show a navigation success improvement of over 30%, confirming enhanced safety and efficiency in mobility. This research establishes a practical foundation for deploying patient-care robots in real hospital settings, showcasing both technical advances in autonomous navigation and the potential to reduce healthcare staff workload while ensuring patient safety.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-026-36664-2.

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