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- Offer Profile
- Hstar Technologies
Corporation develops industry-leading robots to enhance automation quality
in warehouse, healthcare and research settings. We have developed unique
technologies through several SBIR projects to make improvements in the areas
of automation intelligence, safety, flexibility and human productivity.
Hstar is now transitioning from R&D prototypes to commercial products – to
enable our robots to serve more people.
Product Portfolio
AMP Robotic Mobile Platform
- Hstar Technologies Corporation (“HSTAR”) develops
industry-leading robotic mobility platform to enhance the quality of
automation in warehouses, hospitals and research institutes.
HSTAR’s mobile platform AMP (Agile Mobile Platform), the company’s first
robotic mobile system now in development, is designed to transport heavy and
light payloads in different environments.
The flexible mobile platforms can eliminate the need for humans to manually
load trucks, drive forklifts or transport hazardous materials in hospitals
or labs.
AMP is offered in a variety of sizes and configurations.
Light Payload Platform, AMP-I
- Light payload AMP-I can be used in labs, healthcare
facilities, libraries, museums, etc. With its compact size and payload of
200 lbs, it is perfect for hospitals, labs or office environments to deliver
hazardous materials, liquids, paper, etc. Its omni-directional motion is
especially useful in tight, crowded spaces and when interacting with people
or other dynamic vehicles.
Light Payload Platform, AMP-S
- The AMP-S light payload model is designed for material
handling and logistics in research and industrial environments, or anywhere
payloads of up to 500 lbs need to be transported. It has the same compact
size as AMP-I, with a lifting plate option.
Industry Heavy Payload Platform, AMP-L
- Based on AMP-II, AMP-L combines lifting function with
high-payload capability. In the warehouse and manufacturing environment,
AMP-L can go under the shelf and lift the shelf using its automated lifting
device. This function enables a more smooth automated material handling
process.
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
Robotic SmartChair
Hstar SmartChair
- The Hstar SmartChair is much more than just a wheelchair.
Using our proprietary Mecanum wheel drive system, the SmartChair allows the
occupant to not only move forward, backward and turn like a traditional
wheelchair, but also to move sideways, rotate in place, or even rotate while
translating. These features allow for unsurpassed maneuverability and
handling in tight spaces, both indoors and on the go.
FEATURES
- Robotic perception –Sensor-based detection of hazardous conditions, with
automatic safety stop and collision avoidance
- Omnidirectional– Mecanum wheels
- Telepresence Monitoring
ADVANTAGE
- Smoothly navigate gaps and bumps
- Automatically lock wheels when users enter or leave the chair
- Provide active as well as passive restraints
- Monitor speed and automatically initiate braking in crowded or
hazardous conditions
- Automatically stop or navigate around steps, drops, and objects
(including other people)
- Easily navigate narrow passages in homes, eliminating the need for
reconstruction of hallways and doorways often required for chair use
- Move in any direction – even sideways – to align better with a
doorway, or slide into a tight spot
- Provide continuous vital function monitoring
- Provide ongoing telemonitoring of real-time patient and
environmental data
- Telepresence on demand – allowing either the patient or provider to
initiate a session, a virtual medical visit
BENEFIT
- Enhance patient safety: prevent tips, falls, and collisions
- Mobility at a whole new level. Activity area expanded. Move more
like normal people
- Enhance clinical care - within the clinical setting and beyond the
hospital
Robotic Nursing Assistant (RoNA) System
- Robotic patient lifting system, designed to function
under direct nurse control to maneuver and lift patients weighing 300 pounds
or more. Nurses suffer a higher rate of musculoskeletal injury than any
other US profession, including shipping and freight handling, primarily due
to unsafe patient lifting. The RoNA project addresses numerous technology
and clinical protocol challenges necessary to develop a human-safe,
heavy-lifting and clinically useful robotic system. This work has helped
establish the framework and phased implementation of the commercial RoNA
product line.
RoNA Features and Benefits
RoNA will deliver core benefits associated with safe patient lifting,
similar to those derived from today’s traditional methods:- Reduced incidence of clinician workplace injuries, and associated
workman’s compensation claims and lost work time
- Fewer patient falls and injuries due to improper / unsafe lifting
- Improved clinician staff retention and satisfaction (Gallup Score)
- Improved patient satisfaction (Press Ganey Score) and patient
referrals.
Competing primarily against ceiling-mounted lift systems, mobile sling systems, and patient lift teams, RoNA offers distinct advantages:
- Mobility and maneuverability – ceiling systems are fixed, limiting
how and where they can serve patients. RoNA is mobile and
omnidirectional: with mecanum wheels, RoNA can move in any direction,
work in confined spaces, and navigate areas where many portable lifting
systems cannot go.
- Telepresence support – RoNA can work side by side with a trained
nurse, or can be supervised by a remotely located nurse while working
with a less trained attendant.Remotely located clinical experts will be
able to ‘visit’ the patient, monitor physiological data in real-time and
complement the local team’s ability to diagnose and treat patients.
- Patient Safety – RoNA is an intelligent, learning system, able to
sense center of gravity during the patient lift and automatically
adjust. (This is due to its unique haptic feedback and ZMP stability
systems). The result is that the patient will be – and feel – more
secure during the lift and physical transfer than she would in human
hands.
- Reduce employee injury, worker compensation, and premature
retirements – in facilities that have not yet deployed lifting devices,
RoNA will deliver the full benefit of a safe lifting program, reducing
workman’s compensation and injury-related costs by 40% or more. In
facilities where safe patient handling programs have been implemented,
RoNA will increase compliance, further reducing injury-related costs.
There are two reasons for this:
- RoNA will eliminate the need for staff to take time to find and
retrieve lifting equipment; if not already accompanying the nurse, RoNA
will automatically come when called.
- Staff will want to use RoNA, and patients will ask for it: working
with RoNA will be both comforting and fun.
- Reduce staffing and equipment requirements – one RoNA system
will eliminate the need for a dedicated lift team serving 100 beds. This
savings alone will pay for RoNA in two years or less. Factoring in
reductions in injury-related costs reduces the payback period to less
than one year.
Rehabilitation Robotic System
- HSTAR is developing an advanced rehabilitation robot (RehaBot)
system that enables training of a wide range of ambulatory tasks during gait
training process for patients with neurological and muscular injuries or
functional impairments.
HSTAR is developing an advanced rehabilitation robot (RehaBot) system that
enables training of a wide range of ambulatory tasks during gait training
process for patients with neurological and muscular injuries or functional
impairment
Gait training therapy helps individuals with SCI stand and walk with
mechanical or other, sometimes human, assistance. Many researchers agree
gait training should be started as soon after injury as is prudently
possible. If we can retrain our spinal cord to actually learn to walk, and
we have a little bit of connection, we might be able to strengthen the
connectivity between the brain and the spinal cord, and enhance the ability
to step.
Robots could allow therapists to work simultaneously with multiple patients
and maximizing the number of patients receiving treatment. Robots could
relieve physical therapists from the burden of heavy, repetitive,
labor-intensive training techniques and focus on the quality of treatment.
Advantage of RehaBot:- Human - Robot Interaction that allows for dynamic adjustment in force
and resistance; Facilitating the performance of movements that are
highly-repeatable;
- Allows for different terrains to be used; Mimic satisfactorily gait
in real-life conditions;
- Safe, reconfigurable and desirable impedance control capacity that
allows for haptic feedback and real-time monitoring;
- Capturing emotional information in virtual reality (VR)-based
human-computer interaction systems designed for neuro-rehabilitation
- Allows for patient and provider communications
- Operate at remote site for out-patient training.
Combat Casualty Extraction and First Responder Robot
- The Hstar cRoNA (combat RoNA) and follow-on projects
address the need for safe and effective first responder medical assistance
for fallen warfighters. cRoNA adapts the mobility, telepresence, and patient
lifting capabilities of RoNA to field deployment, and adds diagnostic
capabilities, including in-field ultrasound, to ensure safe casualty
movement and extraction.
The Hstar cRoNA (combat RoNA) and follow-on projects address the need for
safe and effective first responder medical assistance for fallen warfighters.
cRoNA adapts the mobility, telepresence, and patient lifting capabilities of
RoNA to field deployment, and adds diagnostic capabilities, including
in-field ultrasound, to ensure safe casualty movement and extraction.
Building upon RoNA technology and with the support of SBIR funding, Hstar is
creating a robotic casualty extraction system. Designed to work effectively
in battlefield conditions, cRoNA will provide traumatic neck/ spine injury
assessment and casualty extraction under telepresence control by a remote
medic.
Combat trauma injury reports inAfghanistan and Iraq indicate that up to 70%
of all casualties are musculoskeletal wounds. These types of injuries, and
particularly those involving potential head, neck, and spine damage, present
significant risk of additional injury during casualty extraction from the
battlefield. Extraction also poses significant risk to potential rescuers,
resulting in additional loss of life and traumatic injury.
The cRoNA combat casualty extraction robotic system addresses these
fundamental concerns. Deployment of the cRoNA system will save lives, reduce
injuries, and improve quality of care and outcomes for wounded soldiers:
- Fewer deaths and injuries among potential rescuers: cRoNA, hardened to
withstand gunfire and other hazards that could cause injury, will reduce or
eliminate the need for others to risk rescue under fire;
- Fewer aggravated casualty injuries due to improper movement or inadequate
immobilization of neck, spine, and extremity injuries;
- More rapid recovery and improved outcomes due to early and improved
diagnostic assessment and appropriate treatment – beginning on the
battlefield and through evacuation to medical centers. In addition to
improving the survivor’s quality of life, this will substantially reduce the
long-term cost of care.
The available military market for cRoNA will be driven by U.S. combat
services (Army, Marines). Additional opportunities exist for non-combat
deployment, to effect rescues under hazardous circumstances such as
chemical, biological, and radioactive contamination, as well as fire.
The cRoNA is a hardened version of RoNA, able to lift casualties weighing up
to 300 pounds, augmented by 3D ultrasound, infrared (IR) scan and biomedical
sensors to enable real-time traumatic injury assessment. Additional planned
features include autonomous ultrasound image acquisition, 3D ultrasound
imaging and visualization, pattern recognition, autonomous injury assessment
procedures, and telepresence robotic control. A medic will be able to
operate the system remotely, with cRoNA providing traumatic injury
assessment, desirable treatments, and effective battlefield casualty
extraction.
The cRoNA system is designed to meet the compelling military need for rapid
and safe stabilization and extraction of wounded warfighters from the
battlefield. Technologies developed for this system have direct commercial
application, and will be employed as the enhanced core of Hstar’s flagship
Robotic Nursing Assistant (RoNA) product line, and create additional
opportunities for first responder and Homeland Security use.
Commercial and Military Freight & Material Handling
- The Hstar’s dMan system brings autonomous robotic
operation to warehouse and shipping material handling, creating significant
opportunities for cost reduction, service quality improvement, the reduction
of worker injury. Its use in battlefield environments, under telepresence
control, will enable unmanned materiel loading and unloading, protecting
military personnel from hostile fire and potential injury or death.
The Hstar’s dMan system brings autonomous robotic operation to warehouse and
shipping material handling, creating significant opportunities for cost
reduction, service quality improvement, the reduction of worker injury. Its
use in battlefield environments, under telepresence control, will enable
unmanned materiel loading and unloading, protecting military personnel from
hostile fire and potential injury or death.
Large-scale warehouse automation systems have largely solved the problem of
bulk product movement, but manual intervention is required for most truck
and container loading and unloading. dMan will initially target container
material handling to address labor-intensive requirements. Building upon
RoNA and cRoNA development efforts, dMan will combine high maneuverability
and autonomous mobility with dexterous manipulation, able to open container
doors and safely handle a wide range of package sizes of 300 lbs or more.
Hstar is working with industry partner Sea Box, and will explore the
potential for commercialization through this partner or with others equally
established in the commercial and military freight systems marketplace.
The dMan robot system will initially target container
material handling to address labor-intensive requirements
-
- Tight maneuverability restrictions rule out most
mechanical aids and placement of pre-packed pallets; shipped items need to
be manually organized, placed and secured. dMan works where a forklift cannot, able to navigate
ramps and operate in close quarters, spin-turn on its omnidirectional
wheelbase, and utilize learned area mapping, geospatial perspective, and
collision avoidance to work efficiently.
- Diverse contents and destinations: containers (and trucks) often
combine loads from multiple customers with diverse destinations.
Packages will be of diverse sizes, weights, and fragility. Packing these
in a way that maximizes logistical efficiency, balances loads, and
prevents breakage or spoilage is an intelligent function, ideal for
autonomic robotic function. dMan software algorithms enable precise,
planned freight placement within or removal and delivery from the
container. Haptic feedback systems enable dexterous manipulation, with
safe placement of loads weighing 300 pounds or more.
- Injury prevention: laborers and freight, stock, and material movers
experienced over four times the national average rate of musculoskeletal
injury (149 per 10,000 workers, vs. 35), and those injured were away
from work twice as long (14 days) as the national median. Man assumes
the heavy and repetitive lifting that can lead to musculoskeletal and
other injuries. Prevention of these injuries saves $1,000 or more per
injury day and prolongs the useful career of employees.
- Reduce freight handling time and costs, and improve “perfect order”
(on time, on target) shipments. dMan, operating 24 hours per day, can
unload 50 TEUs per day, the work of 15 or more laborers. Assuming an
hourly union rate plus benefits of $35/hr, a dedicated operator, and a
net savings of 10 laborers, savings in one year would amount to $0.7
million. dMan, priced at $200,000, would pay for itself well within the
first year of operation, allowing for a generous ramp up.
i-Pbot – an Intelligent robotic pallet
- Hstar is developing an advanced omni-directional
intelligent robotic pallet (i-Pbot) system for military cargo handling. The
i-Pbot will be developed by integrating holonomic drive for high mobility in
confined spaces, high strength actuators for active compliance control
(articulation, suspension, and sensing), tele-robotics control for enhancing
the guidance of robotic pallets, and wireless sensor network for
self-location capability. The propelled and actuated tele-robotic device,
i-Pbot system, can assure a safely balanced air cargo handling. The wireless
i-Pbot swarms will navigate autonomously by swarm algorithms based on each
i-Pbot’s weight and proximity to make sure that each i-Pbot parks at the
proper location on the aircraft with a proper weight distribution.
Our first application targets military air transport, enabling faster
loading and unloading of aircraft and improved ground logistics to increase
sortie rates and accelerate end-to-end cargo delivery. Hstar plans to extend
its application of robotic material handling technology and ConOps to a
broad range of commercial applications, including commercial air freight,
warehouse, plant floor, and multi-modal shipping operations.
- Heavy duty robotic hands developed for shipping box
container door handling - delicate pinch manipulations or power grips
- (Left) Holonomic mobile platform with high strength
actuators ;(Right) The wireless i-Pbot swarms navigate autonomously at the
prober location on the aircraft with weight distribution.