AIoT Herbal Picking and Delivery System for Chinese Medicine Hospital

Overview

The first Chinese medicine hospital in Hong Kong is expected to commence service in phases starting 2025. Expertized in applied technologies of artificial intelligence (AI), IoT, and Robotics, LSCM is developing a AIoT Herbal Picking and Delivery System that can facilitate the hospitals' busy operations in future.

  • AIoT Herbal Picking and Delivery System for Chinese Medicine Hospital
Research completion
2023
Commercialisation opportunities
Technology licensing
Problem addressed

Typically, the gathering of herbal ingredients for decoctions of traditional Chinese medicine relies heavily on manual dispensing, which is a skill- and experience-intensive process. Hospitals have a high demand for speed and efficiency. Moreover, dispensary shopfloor by its nature comprises many complicated processes from storage, dispensing, decocting, to delivery, which pose great challenges to Chinese medicine hospitals.

Innovation
  • A pick-to-light system on a traditional Chinese Medicine Cabinet to allow dispensing staffs to quickly locate a herbal medicine, especially in a large operation like Chinese Medicine Hospital.
  • An AI Visual Analytic system can verify the picked Chinese Medicine against the prescription, trace the log records, and generate big data on medicine usage pattern. RFID and sensors on a conventional conveyor system can guide the entire process from dispensing, decocting to delivery and trace the medicine.
  • Medicine Delivery Management System that integrates the data and control among the different subsystems on the shopfloor. It can also direct and coordinate the deliverbot fleet to deliver the dispensed medicines to designated locations in the hospital.
Key impact
  • IoT pick-to-light to facilitate the operation efficiency of prescription picking on a large-scale shopfloor.
  • An AI Visual Analytic system to act as a quality gatekeeper to ensure the accuracy of prescription picking by verifying the picked medicines.
  • Fleet of deliverbots to alleviate hospital staff from laborious delivery work around the hospital by auto-navigate safely in co-working space with human.
  • Medicine Delivery Management System to facilitate the integrative and synchronous dispensing and delivery processes around the shopfloor, also to support real-time track-and-trace visibility with extensive IoT data captures, and that, it enables performance data analytics for management.
Award
  • Bronze Medal in the 48th International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva
Application
  • Hospitals

Patent

  • US 18/184,154
  • CN 2023 1030 8349.0
  • HK 3202 3070 061.1
Logistics and Supply Chain MultiTech R&D Centre (LSCM)

Logistics and Supply Chain MultiTech R&D Centre (LSCM) was founded in 2006, with funding from the Innovation and Technology Fund of The Government of the Hong Kong SAR, and is co-hosted by the University of Hong Kong, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. It aims to strengthen the local logistics sector and related industries by providing a one-stop resource for applied research and technology transfer, and to reinforce cooperation between the industry and research institutes to bring about meaningful and significant impact on the industry and the community. 

LSCM serves the industry by initiating research projects, contract research, as well as providing business matching opportunities, technology transfer and intellectual property commercialisation. LSCM initiates technology and knowledge transfer to the marketplace to promote industrial digitalisation, facilitate technology advancement and strengthen Hong Kong’s position as a leading logistics and commercial hub.

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