Design and Application of a Nurse-Following Medical Bed Robot with a Negative Pressure Chamber for Patient Transportation in the Hospital: A Korean Case of Federated Digital Twins

Robots and artificial intelligence have revolutionized the healthcare sector. Transporting patients within hospitals is critical; however, reducing errors and inefficiencies caused by human intervention and increasing task efficiency are necessary. Therefore, there is a clear need to reduce these interventions and increase overall task efficiency. We implemented a digital twin of the situation in which a nurse-following patient transport bed robot (in short, nurse-following bed robot or medical bed robot) transports patients in an infectious disease situation. To operate multiple bed robots, a federated digital twin was implemented, and all processes that occur in a hospital when an infectious disease patient arrives were defined, and scenarios for various situations were constructed. These scenarios were then simulated to validate system performance and preparedness for real-world situations. This study investigates and provides a detailed explanation of the core technologies required for this digital implementation process.