Hospital logistics: App for autonomous transport systems

Driverless undercarriage tractor Caesar for automated transport in clinics and hospitals (Source: MLR Group)

Driverless undercarriage tractor Caesar for automated transport in clinics and hospitals (Source: MLR)

App for Autonomous Transport Systems (Source: MLR Group)

App for Autonomous Transport Systems (Source: MLR Group)

App for Autonomous Transport Systems (Source: MLR Group)

The FTS manufacturer MLR has developed a web app for Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV) and Automatic Goods Transport Systems (AGTS), which now allows status and error messages to be sent directly to smartphones and tablets.

Service personnel are notified via SMS when obstacles are in the way, peripheral systems such as elevators or roller shutters are disrupted, or an emergency stop has been activated. The system reports the location where an automated vehicle has stopped and provides the error details.

"With their mobile devices, employees can interact directly with the control system on-site and no longer need to go to a terminal as before," says Markus Kölsch, Head of Corporate Communications at the MLR Group.

MLR's Automated Guided Vehicles transport meal containers from the hospital kitchen to individual wards and automatically return used dishes. They handle the transport of clean and dirty laundry, distribute magazines and pharmacy supplies, and dispose of waste. The intelligent vehicles use elevators and move independently across different floors. The vehicles, transport containers, and pickup and delivery stations are managed by MLR's proprietary control system LogOS. It manages schedules and regulates and optimizes traffic flow.

MLR's logistics experts have been implementing AGTS and automated guided vehicle systems for over 40 years. In 1973, they commissioned one of Europe's first AGTS with corridor transport vehicles at the Robert-Bosch Hospital in Stuttgart. Today, the company from Ludwigsburg builds systems worldwide. Reference projects are located in Norway, Sweden, Spain, Australia, and Singapore, as well as in German clinics and hospitals: in university hospitals in Jena, Magdeburg, Düsseldorf, and Marburg, clinics in Bamberg, Offenbach, and Bonn, as well as the Robert-Bosch Hospital in Stuttgart and the Leopoldina Hospital in Schweinfurt.

The web app runs across all common smartphones and tablets and can be quickly and easily integrated into existing infrastructure.