Robot Work Includes the People Who Load It
■ A robot without arms can only wait to be loaded
Evening on the ward. Hakobukun opens its drawer in front of the linen room: "Waiting to be loaded." Then a patient takes a turn for the worse, and Oshiro and Terashima run off. An hour later, the drawer is still empty. "Nobody loaded me."
■ If nobody is there, the work does not get done
In an article on a study of delivery robots in a U.S. hospital (hinnovic), the robots could not start until someone loaded them, and on busy wards they were seen as inefficient workers that could not react to urgent situations. A robot's work includes the work of the people who load it.
■ Conclusion: Count the loaders in the schedule
Shiraishi made a timetable of loading times and who loads. If that person's hands are full, Hakobukun does not wait forever; it goes to another job first. "When no one can load, I'll come back later."
When you schedule the robot, schedule the people beside it too.
