Robot-based rack processing system
AssigneeSTERIS Inc.
InventorsHugo St-Jean, Daniel Rochette
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A robot-based system for processing racks used for transportation of articles in connection with an inactivation procedure, such as sterilization, disinfection, and decontamination. Robots are used to move full and empty racks between a plurality of a locations within soiled and clean areas of a workspace, including, but not limited to, a loading station where soiled medical instruments are loaded on the racks, washer/disinfectors for processing the medical instruments, and an unloading station where clean medical instruments are unloaded from the racks for sorting into trays.
Claims15
A rack processing system for processing racks in a workspace having a soiled area and a clean area isolated from the soiled area, the rack processing system comprising:
- at least one inactivation apparatus for carrying out an inactivation procedure, said inactivation apparatus loaded in the soiled area and unloaded in the clean area;
- a first robot located in the soiled area for transporting a rack loaded with soiled medical instruments from a first location in the soiled area to the at least one inactivation apparatus;
- a second robot located in the clean area for transporting a rack loaded with clean medical instruments from the at least one inactivation apparatus to a second location in the clean area;
- and
- a central computer system for providing instructions to the first and second robots.
A method for processing racks in a workspace having a soiled area and a clean area isolated from the soiled area, the method comprising:
- transmitting a pick up request from a loading station to a central computer system, the pick up request requesting pick up of a full rack from the loading station;
- and
- determining whether an inactivation apparatus is available for processing a rack, wherein
- if an inactivation apparatus is available, then transmitting instructions from the central computer system to a first robot located in the soiled area to pick up the full rack from the loading station and transport it to the available inactivation apparatus, and
- if the inactivation apparatus is not available, then transmitting instructions from the central computer system to the first robot to pick up the full rack from the loading station and transport it to a first buffer storage.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.