Autonomous Hospital Transport Robot
Senior design project focused on autonomous hospital transport: safe routing, human-aware navigation, and reliable handoffs for clinical logistics.
Academic capstone at the University of Florida (Jan 2024 – Dec 2024).
Overview
Designed a mobile robot workflow that transports supplies between hospital stations while prioritizing safety, predictable motion, and staff-aware handoff zones.
Industry context
My senior design project explored autonomous hospital transport and operational workflow constraints (safety, routing, handoffs, uptime). For a real-world company tackling this space today, see Rovex.
The constraints we designed around are the same class of constraints that show up in commercial hospital logistics autonomy.
Problem
Hospital hallways and shared clinical spaces introduce dynamic obstacles, variable lighting, and strict safety expectations. The system needed to navigate reliably while minimizing disruptions to staff.
Approach
- Navigation stack: ROS 2 + Nav2 with tuned costmaps for human-safe clearance.
- Perception: LiDAR-driven obstacle detection paired with conservative local planning.
- Workflow modeling: Defined pickup/dropoff zones and handoff timing to reduce congestion.
- Reliability: Emphasized deterministic behaviors and safe recovery states.
Results
- Delivered a stable hospital transport demo with repeatable routing runs.
- Validated safe operating envelopes for narrow corridors and high-traffic areas.
- Produced a capstone report with tested navigation and workflow recommendations.