HelpMate (1988) by Transitions Research Corporation (TRC), Connecticut. TRC was founded in 1984 by Joseph F. Engelberger (top photo). HelpMate is a robotic materials transport system for hospitals and nursing homes. It follows a pre-programmed path and uses vision, ultrasonic proximity and infrared proximity to sense its environment. In 1997 TRC went public and changed its name to HelpMate Robotics Inc. The rights to HelpMate were later acquired by San Diego based Pyxis Corporation.
"HelpMate's capability was built up through three years of experience in the Danbury Hospital in Connecticut, U.S.A. In 1990 HelpMate's performance became good enough to command a salary. The hospital began to pay US$5 per hour for HelpMate's services. There was no question in the minds of any of the Transitions Research Corporation (TRC) engineers that it was essential to get HelpMate out of the laboratory environment into the real world. This was not merely to test functionality. HelpMate literally required real-world experience that had never been anticipated in laboratory surroundings. TRC's engineers learned that sunlight through hospital windows could confuse the structured-light vision system, that exit signs contain the same infrared light frequency as was used for HelpMate navigation, that ultrasound echo characteristics differ from summer days of air conditioning to winter days of dry heat. We even learned that an extremely courteous robot often will lose its place on a lift to usurping humans in a hurry. All of this ended in our building an 'expert system' of rules to help the robot cope with its varying environment. At the time of writing, a surprising total of 1692 rules have been incorporated." – Joseph F. Engelberger, Health-care robotics goes commercial: the 'HelpMate' experience.
