Public Funding for Ice Nine Limited

COVID-19 has had an affect on all our lives, but nowhere has been quite as affected as all of our healthcare settings. A great debt is owed to our healthcare providers and Ice Nine Ltd would like to say thank you! We would also like to aid our healthcare providers and offer solutions that reduce the burden of administrative tasks, such as transport of samples to the lab for testing and transport of critical medication from emergency stocks to the patient. These are all 10-15 minute round-trips that could be avoided and spent communicating with and treating patients. Autonomous robotic platforms are capable of a variety of repetitive and simple tasks and we believe are particularly appropriate for deployment in healthcare settings. The addition of a variety of obstacle avoidance and safety sensors, as well as a hermetically sealed, temperature controlled and secured container/chamber will enable the transportation of samples from patient to lab. This same device can also be used or adapted to transport critical medications from emergency stocks to doctors, nurses and patients. Or, out of hours food boxes can be delivered to patients admitted after the rounds have been completed to order food for that day. There is a huge opportunity to offer solutions that aid our healthcare providers and we are excited to be developing part of these solutions.

This innovate UK project enables Ice Nine to focus on developing an autonomous, modular robotic platform to be used primarily in hospitals and care settings. Initially developed payloads include a disinfectant device and a telepresence device. This would allow an empty room to be disinfected by an autonomous robotic platform, repeatably and reliably, without the need for personnel to physically move a disinfectant device around a room. The robotic platform includes obstacle avoidance and safety features to avoid damage to equipment, humans and itself. A telepresence device will free up valuable care worker time and improve safety in quarantine zones. By offering "communication on wheels", it would be possible for the robotic platform to navigate to a patients bed, call family or friends and be there as long as is required. Alternatively, a nurse or doctor could complete a generalised check of a quarantine area without PPE. This would by no means act as a replacement for human-to-human care, but may offer a reduction in PPE waste and reduced likelihood of care workers becoming sick. These are just the initial payload devices. The platform will enable iterative improvement to the functionality of the platform through design of new payloads. It would be possible to offer laundry basket, patient entertainment or emergency medical equipment to the base robotic platform, expanding its functionality, reducing electronic waste and improving cost-effectiveness. COVID-19 has taken a lot of people by surprise and we need to act fast to help as many people as possible. We also need to look to the future, to reduce the likelihood of anything like this happening again. Ice Nine hopes, that by developing robotic systems for care settings, we can improve the chances of recovery for patients and reduce the burden on the front-life staff that everyone depends on.