Lio – the robot who is ready to help

Everyday, the world is facing multiple challenges, especially during COVID-19 pandemic time. The healthcare industry is struggling the most – lack of human power and support is making the nursing profession even more difficult.

But there is a solution for it. The professional personal assistant robot Lio by F&P Robotics is specifically designed to assist healthcare staff with their everyday tasks.

Who is Lio?
Lio is a friendly mobile personal robot with a multifunctional arm. He is able to support
healthcare professionals in their daily tasks as well as communicate with people and entertain them.

What can Lio do?
Lio is a very versatile robot. His daily tasks include transportation of various items across
healthcare facilities, disinfection of door handles using UVC light, entertaining patients and residents and much more. Let’s take a look into every function one by one:

• • Recognising and greeting people, identifying objects
    Multiple cameras placed on Lio allow the robot to recognize people and various objects. With the help of AI algorithms the mobile robot can recognize people’s faces and greet them personally by name. Identification of various objects allows Lio to safely navigate around the facility, grasp the objects laying on the ground, store them safely on his back and later hand them back to people.
  • Showing active tasks and duties
    The status of Lio can be observed by nursing staff via specially designed nursing interface. The interface allows scheduling various activities and duties for the robot using a calendar system, such as post delivery at 7 AM or sport exercises at 3 PM. The nursing interface also allows the personnel to check the status and position of the robot, as well as control the robot in a user friendly manner.
  • Autonomous navigation, driving and charging
    Lio is equipped with multiple sensors, such as laser scanners, floor and finger sensors, mechanical bumpers, fisheye and gripper cameras. It allows the robot to safely navigate around the facility, avoiding obstacles and autonomously finding the alternative driving routes. Decision engine enables the autonomous behaviour of the robot. For example, if Lio notices that the battery level is getting low, he stops the current task and returns to the charging station and connects to the charger. It allows him to operate throughout the facility 24/7 and support healthcare personnel uninterruptedly.
  • Autonomous grasping and transportation of items
    Transportation of various objects such as lab samples and water bottles is a very important part of everyday work at healthcare facilities. Lio is supporting staff by driving from one place to another and delivering mail, blood samples and test results. In order to do it safely and comfortably, Lio carries a custom designed carriage box on his back. The box can also be locked with a smart lock in order to ensure safe and quick deliveries.
  • Interaction by touch and voice
    Lio is a very friendly robot. He likes to talk to people and provide information as well as entertain them in different ways. There are multiple intuitive ways for people to interact with Lio. The answers to the questions can be provided by voice, clearly saying yes or no . Also, the head push of the robot confirms the positive answer and the head push to the side gives a negative response. On top of that the answers to the questions can be given by a simple touch of a finger sensor on Lio’s gripper. A variety of interaction ways allows Lio to be friendly and easily acceptable to various users, especially inexperienced and elderly people.
  • Numerous entertainment functions
    People are never bored when Lio is around. He can dance, sing, tell stories and jokes, play games, do sports and learn something new everyday! Not only the robot can boost the mood of everyone around, he can also encourage people to drink enough water while leading the guided exercise and using skeleton tracking and AI to make sure that the exercise is done correctly. The robot can communicate in various languages such as German, English, Chinese, Russian, French, Italian and many more.
  • Disinfection and hygiene
    Lio is a conscious robot with friendly character, but he is also aware about the difficult time during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, he is ready to bring the disinfecting gel on his back wherever he goes. On top of that he actively refuses handshakes and offers to greet each other in alternative ways. He also reminds people to wash their hands, wear a mask and keep the safe distance from each other. But most importantly, Lio is making sure that the germs are gone from commonly touched surfaces such as door handles, by disinfecting multiple doors with UVC light.

How does the disinfection of the door handles work?
Disinfection of frequently touched surfaces around public facilities is the answer to decreasing the spread of the infection. These surfaces include door handles, handrails and elevator buttons. It requires a lot of patience and effort to reliably disinfect all surfaces around the clinic.

The disinfection of door handles is the newest feature implemented in Lio. It is made possible by using the custom designed tool and a powerful UVC light.

The disinfection is mostly performed during the night, but is also safe to run during the day time. This function relieves healthcare staff from a very important, but repetitive task and keeps the safety of the patients and residents the top priority.

In order to disinfect the door handles Lio has to be equipped with a custom designed UVC lamp. The tool is placed on Lio’s back by the nurse and then Lio autonomously drives from door to door and disinfects the door handles.

The robot can disinfect up to 30 doors per shift. In order to ensure safety for people surrounding the robot, the number of safety features are implemented into the function.

For example, Lio will stop the disinfection and turn off the UVC light immediately if the door handle is pressed, the tool is moved or the person appears in Lio’s camera view.

All these and other safety features guarantee the efficient disinfection of frequently touched surfaces using UVC light which is lethal to germs and viruses, but safe for people.

Lio – the Professional Personal Robot is Available Now!
The robot Lio is a team member – he has his own character. State-of-the-art technologies are used in such a way that Lio is helpful as well as liked and accepted by people.

He is easy to use and can be connected to multiple smart devices. Multiple Lios are already implemented in healthcare institutions around Switzerland and Germany. Lio is a Swiss made assistant robot who is ready to become a part of your team.