Prototype Advancement of the Robotic IV Pole: Preliminary Simulation

The Intravenous (IV) poles are medical and healthcare facilities utilized to deliver medications to patients over a scheduled time. Existing Intravenous poles are either commercial poles, that are found in the market, or robotic poles, that are still under research. Despite commercial poles hold and deliver medications, they restricted the movement of patients, consumed the nurses' time and were costly. The robotic poles in research were able to overcome the movement restrictions however, they needed external accessories to maneuver the pole and they carried light weights merely. The aim of our project is to develop a new prototype for solving the shortcomings of both commercial and robotic poles in order to enhance the healthcare service provided to patients. In this paper we provide the simulation of our automated robotic IV pole to offer new technological features. Several cost-effective build up materials were carefully chosen in this prototype. The first step was the simulation of the prototype of the new robotic pole including its different parts and components, using AutoCAD. Simulation results showed five contributions separated according to the function and/or merged according to the prototype. The preliminary results also showed the best qualitative way to fit all the specifications in the robotic system, such as the overall simulated shape, sensors and connections in order to provide the proper functionality of the system. The experimental development will be consider in our future work.