UK Digital Twin Environment to Transport Clinical Specimens using AI

Introduction:

The Institute for Biomedical Informatics is always looking for ways to improve the efficiency of our hospital system. One way to do this is through the transportation of clinical specimens from Chandler Hospital to Shriner’s Hospital and Good Samaritan Hospital using AI pathfinding and collision avoidance. By training a model for a drone or ground vehicle, we seek to incorporate intelligent robotics into the delivery system for the UK hospital system.

Technology Overview:

The current simulation tool is Microsoft AirSim, visualized through Unreal Engine, which allows us to simulate cars and drones in a digital twin of UK’s campus. This software allows for training of the vehicles to avoid collisions and follow paths through complex environments. The goal is to train drones and ground vehicles to intelligently, efficiently, and safely transport specimens between locations on campus.

Current Efforts:

– Creating a functional environment with collision detection utilizing LIDAR data of UK’s campus and hospitals

Point Cloud of UK’s Campus

– Building a model for path following and collision detection that can be applied to a real world robot