Aalborg University Hospital is the largest hospital in the Danish region of North Jutland. Up to 3,000 blood samples arrive at the laboratory every day. They have to be checked and sorted - a time-consuming and monotonous process that was previously carried out manually. Now the hospital has automated the process: A robot-based system and intelligent transport boxes ensure the quality of the samples - and show how work processes in hospitals can be simplified through automation.

Two local companies were brought in for the implementation: LT Automation designed and implemented the robotic solution. The software developer Intelligent Systems developed the software to monitor the temperature of the blood samples during transportation.

New process relieves employees and optimizes workflows
The manual process used to work like this: Laboratory staff opened the incoming transport boxes, took the blood samples and sorted them for further clinical analysis. Due to the high number of boxes, the hospital staff often complained of tendon and muscle injuries resulting from the repetitive activity. "We wanted to automate this process to reduce the workload for our employees," explains Annebirthe Bo Hansen, Head of Department at Aalborg University Hospital. "We were also looking for a way to better control the quality of the blood samples and their temperature."

RFID data loggers are integrated into the intelligent transport boxes, which can be used to measure the temperature consistency of the samples. © Kuka

Kuka robots and RFID loggers facilitate quality assurance
To optimize processes, LT Automation and Intelligent Systems have developed a robot solution and an innovative transport box. Two Kuka robots from the KR Agilus series, one of type KR 3 and one of type KR 10, are installed in the sorting system. "There were several reasons for choosing Kuka robots," explains Lasse Thomsen, CEO at LT Automation: "On the one hand, the robots meet the necessary technical requirements. On the other hand, with their white exterior, they match the look that is expected in a sterile environment." The robots are controlled via the mxAutomation control system. A conveyor belt guides the transport boxes to the robots, which are shielded by Plexiglas walls.

The special feature of the "intelligent transport box" is the integrated RFID data logger, which not only allows the transport route of the individual box to be tracked. The logger also records the temperature inside the box at any given time. A crucial factor, as Annebirthe Bo Hansen explains: "To guarantee the quality of the blood samples, the temperature must be a constant 21 degrees Celsius, plus/minus one degree Celsius." With the introduction of the "intelligent transport box", the hospital was able to determine that this was not always guaranteed in the past. "The new technology has helped us to identify and eliminate sources of error," says Annebirthe Bo Hansen with satisfaction.

Robot automatically sorts incorrectly transported blood samples from
The blood samples travel a long way to the hospital: they are taken from general practitioners' surgeries in the vicinity of the clinic. The doctors place the filled glass tubes in the transparent transport boxes and store them in an appropriate cabinet, which ensures the optimum temperature. On collection, the courier driver scans the boxes so that their route can be tracked. He takes the blood samples to the hospital, where they are scanned and registered on arrival.

Two KR 3 Agilus and KR 10 Agilus robots are installed in the robot cell. © Kuka

In the laboratory, an employee places the transport boxes on the feed belt of the robot system. At this moment, an RFID scanner mounted in the room reads the data logger. "If the scanner detects that the temperature of a box has deviated from the prescribed temperature at any point during its journey, it automatically sends information to the robot," explains Lasse Thomsen. "The robot ejects the box in question from the system so that it lands on the laboratory employee's workstation." The employee takes a close look at the data stored on the logger and decides whether the blood samples in the box are still usable.

If the data logger does not detect any incorrect temperatures, the first robot opens the box, removes the blood samples and sets them aside for sorting. It then puts the lid back on the box and ejects it so that it can be used for further transportation. Meanwhile, the second robot sorts the unpacked glass tubes according to the color of their lids, which it recognizes using a scanner. The pre-sorted samples are output from the system in such a way that the laboratory employee can carry out the blood test. On average, the system takes 1.5 minutes per box and can process up to forty boxes in an hour.

Process optimization and improvement of the workplace
The new system was tested for the first time in March 2019 and finally went into full operation in August. "We are very satisfied with this solution," sums up Annebirthe Bo Hansen. "It has significantly improved the working environment and processes." The laboratory staff now not only have more time to analyze the blood samples, but also more time for the patients. In addition, automated sorting and permanent monitoring of the temperature in the transport box have reduced potential sources of error. as