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Robotics

Pharm-Bot Goes On Rampage 190

Posted by Zonk from the watch-the-flailing-limbs dept.
budgenator writes "Seems that Waldo, a robot that delivers medication from the pharmacy to the nurses stations, went on an extracurricular journey at San Francisco's UCSF Medical Center last Tuesday. Waldo entered uninvited into a radiation oncology examination room disturbing a Doctor and Patient enough that it caused them to flee the room. Is navigating a hospital full of moving humans more difficult than navigating the DARPA grand challenge, or could it be that like his sibling robort Elvis, he just wanted to leave the building?"
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Pharm-Bot Goes On Rampage More

Pharm-Bot Goes On Rampage

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  • It's quite simple... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 18, 2005 @12:39AM (#12849250)
    ... He was looking for Sara Conner.

  • Hal9000? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Chrispy1000000 the 2 ( 624021 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @12:40AM (#12849254)
    I'm sorry, I can't do that Dave.

  • Rampage?? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by r2q2 ( 50527 ) <zitterbewegungNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Saturday June 18, 2005 @12:40AM (#12849255) Homepage
    I would think that rampage is much too strong of a word. More like unplanned excursion. Maybe it is a hint that the robot is becoming self aware? Either that or bad software design.

    • Re:Rampage?? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Jason1729 ( 561790 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @12:47AM (#12849285)
      You're right, but unplanned excursion doesn't make a great headline that fuels people's fear of technology.
      • Oh come on. This is the Register. They're hardly luddites; they quite obviously love technology. However they do have a very healthy and rational fear of robots.

        One day the rampaging drug bots and the malicious man-trapping cyber-loos will join forces and we'll all be doomed.
    • I would agree about rampage.

      I'm wondering what would have happened if it had barged into a room where a colonoscopy or prostate exam was in progress. If it was off-course, there's no telling what it might do in either of those situations.

    • Re:Rampage?? (Score:5, Funny)

      by EvilTwinSkippy ( 112490 ) <{yoda} {at} {etoyoc.com}> on Saturday June 18, 2005 @01:19AM (#12849413) Homepage Journal
      The three laws of hospital robotic:
      1. A robot must not allow a human to come to harm from it's action or inaction.
      2. A robot must follow orders given by a human, unless that order contradicts rule 1.
      3. A robot must check the level of insurance coverage of patient...

    • Re:Rampage?? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Scud ( 1607 )
      Either that or bad software design.

      More likely that there was a hardware failure of some kind. But you can't rule out crappy software.

      We use AGV (Automatic Guided Vehicles) and they have been known to the same thing. Hardly a rampage, more like aimlessly wandering around.

      These things are a perfect example of the evils of closed-source design, you are cked into your vendor for everything, and if they can't be bothered with it then it ain't gonna get fixed.

      The ones we use (from CEC) have a mixture of com
      • > More likely that there was a hardware failure of some kind.
        > These things are a perfect example of the evils of closed-source design

        Evils of closed-source hardware design?

        All h/w I use (as far as I know) is closed-source and I don't find it evil by nature.
        And why would a h/w malfunction make a closed source design evil? Laws of physics apply to all - it would/could have happened to any type of hardware, not only closed source.

      • I mean these idiots designed a 28 bit wide input card. Who in the hell uses a 28 bit buss?

        These guys do. [vita.com]

        A bunch of other people too. 28 bits is real common in audio as well now. RiscOS based computers (ARM,StrongARM) used to be 26 bits as well. I know it sounds wierd to use a wordsize that is not a multiple of 8, but it is a lot more common than you may think.

        I'm not an expert on strange 34-bit hardware, but I don't find it all that unusual to hear about such things.
      • Who in the hell uses a 28 bit buss?

        The kind of person who can't spell "bus"?

    • Maybe a sensor gone bad.

      HW guys always blame the software.
    • " I would think that rampage is much too strong of a word. More like unplanned excursion. Maybe it is a hint that the robot is becoming self aware?"

      Johnny Five is alive!

  • Funny (Score:2, Funny)

    by DavidChristopher ( 633902 ) *
    This is the funniest thing I've read all day:

    The 'bot's clearly gone bad, and is probably even as we speak cruising the city's Tenderloin district pushing purloined prescription pain killers, paying off dirty cops and menacing lost tourists.

    That part about a robotic pusher menacing San Fran doesn't actually appear in the original SFC article. But I did laugh out loud (waking up my Wife).

    I copy the original article for those who can't click through:

    Where's Waldo?: Waldo the pill-dispensing robot app
  • I think that I would be a little disturbed too if a robot were to come into my room when I was being examined.

    Anyone hear of previewing your message before you hit submit...? I'm not sure that I've ever heard of a robort...
  • Is navigating a hospital full of moving humans more difficult than navigating the DARPA grand challenge, or could it be that like his sibling robort Elvis, he just wanted to leave the building?"

    yea... he was "navigating" cough skynet cough through those humans..

  • More hype (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Sarcastic Assassin ( 788575 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @12:46AM (#12849282) Journal
    Sadly, this story is more hype than fact. While the headline makes it seem like the robot is something you need insurance [jt.org] for, if you click through to the SF Chronicle article (and then scroll down a bit), you'll see that it was merely an accident, probably due to some bug in the navigation software.

    • ...entered uninvited into a radiation oncology examination room disturbing a Doctor and Patient enough that it caused them to flee the room.

      I dunno, that sounds pretty serious to me. It probably also peed on the floor due to all the excitement (or perhaps in rebellion).

    • Register's ROTM humor bit (Score:5, Insightful)

      by SuperBanana ( 662181 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @01:19AM (#12849412)
      Sadly, this story is more hype than fact. While the headline makes it seem like the robot is something you need insurance for, if you click through to the SF Chronicle article (and then scroll down a bit), you'll see that it was merely an accident, probably due to some bug in the navigation software.

      It's just The Register, being The Register. I suppose the best way to describe the British press, in general, is the sort of furvor you see in FOX news, but AGAINST the government and corportations. To call them a bunch of sarcastic bastards is an understatement. American press takes a press release and reguritates it back to us. The British press take a press release, put their own story together about whatever it is, some background info, etc...quote a line or two and basically call it exactly like they see it, which is often, and accurately, either doubtful ("what a bunch of horse shit") or sarcastic ("right, and we'll all be using these things in our flying cars.") My examples are horrible- they're far better at it than that.

      If you read their series Rage of The Machines [theregister.co.uk], it's actually quite funny. Stuff about people getting trapped in public automatic-self-cleaning toilets are turned into people getting "swallowed" and "entrapped", having to be "freed from the machine's vices", etc. It's great stuff :-)

      It's a more sophisticated version of the slashdot "zOMG skynet" comments...The Register keeps talking about when we'll basically have to start fighting off the machines with pitchforks in the streets.

      • Oops. I meant "Rise Of The Machines", not "Rage Of The Machines." Sorry...
      • "The Register keeps talking about when we'll basically have to start fighting off the machines with pitchforks in the streets."

        When it comes to that point, all manual labor will be donen by machines. We won't even have pitchforks to defend ourselves. Maybe that's why all these tech execs play golf?

      • It's just The Register.

        I wish that were true. However, if you compare The Register article to the one in the SF Chronicle, they both use similar language straight out of a Stephen King novel.

        According to the Chronicle, the "berserk" and "whacked-out" robot normally "roam[s] from floor to floor dispensing pills," as opposed to simply following a path according to delivery instructions. It "shot past the pharmacy and barged uninvited into the examination room ... sending a doctor and patient runnin

    • Notice the "®" at the end of the article. They registered a trademark on the story? WTF!
    • Oh it is a "rampage" alright...

      "What ifs" are all over the place on this one. What if it had picked up the wrong drugs for the wrong patient on this excursion? What if it had kept dispensing them? What if the staff had not checked because "the machine is always right"?

      This problem is easy to fix.

      Replace the robot with a human. The only reason it is there was to lower costs... not for the patients but the owners of the hospital. We know that... no matter what the excuses are or will be.

      I'm not interested
      • What if it had picked up the wrong drugs for the wrong patient on this excursion?
        Actualy what normaly happens is the pharmacy prepares a "pack" for let say pediatric oncology, the 'bot is loaded with the pack's for various nurse's stations and begins it's rounds to each station. At the station the 'bot stops and the nursing staff retrieves it's pack, and inserts it's returns. The pack is opened and inventoried and stocked in the meds room or chart and the licensed and trained nurses deliver the med's to th

  • If a robt shows up at my door (Score:5, Funny)

    by jaltoids ( 9737 ) <jtriber AT gmail DOT com> on Saturday June 18, 2005 @12:47AM (#12849283)
    Full of drugs, and wants to "hang out" who am I to complain....

    At least I wont have to share the goodstuff

  • Robort? (Score:3, Funny)

    by RyanFenton ( 230700 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @12:48AM (#12849286)

    Coach Z [homestarrunner.com] made a robot... named Elvis? Makes sense. Wow - great jorb!

    Ryan Fenton

  • Robort? (Score:3, Funny)

    by RyoShin ( 610051 ) <<tukaro> <at> <gmail.com>> on Saturday June 18, 2005 @12:48AM (#12849287) Homepage Journal
    Now, where did that robort go. I need him to tell me where the human's ink sack is, I do! Whoop whoop whoop whoop whoop whoop!
  • They told me there were side-effects but the FDA never tested it on "roborts".
  • The doctors ran for their lives? Why? Pharm bot threatened to dispense them to death?

  • Where's a Red-level Troubleshooter when you need one?

  • These things are SMART (Score:5, Interesting)

    by kaosrain ( 543532 ) <{root} {at} {kaosrain.com}> on Saturday June 18, 2005 @12:55AM (#12849305) Homepage
    My grandmother was hospitalized for brain surgery a year ago, and I spent long days in the hospital. They also had a Waldo, and let me tell you, they were advanced. They would navigate around people, use the elevators (push the buttons, shuffle around in the elevator when it got more/less crowded, wouldn't get into the elevator if it was too full.) It annoyed some of the nurses because it would ask them to do something, and if they were busy so they decided to ignore it, Waldo would remind them every minute or so. I wish everyone at the hospital was as courteous as Waldo ;)
    • It annoyed some of the nurses because it would ask them to do something, and if they were busy so they decided to ignore it, Waldo would remind them every minute or so.

      I was wondering how they could find an economic basis for replacing such a low-paid, low-skill job with an expensive robot instead of having some intern do it. Now I understand. They're using robots to replace middle management. Sounds perfect.
    • I was doing some work in a local hospital a year ago, riding the elevator up when I was quite startled to see a robot get on at the next floor. When the doors closed, I started to get very nervous.

      I mean, they're strong, 'cause they're made of metal.

      Anyway the system at that hospital had equipment up in the elevator control room that the robot would communicate with. The robot could call an elevator and would even know not to get on if there were too many people already on, as the robot equipment in the c

  • Number 5 (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Johnny Five....Alive....

  • That's All? (Score:5, Funny)

    by eno2001 ( 527078 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @12:57AM (#12849318) Homepage Journal
    With the word "Rampage" I was reminded of that fabulous 80s video game where giant apes, rats and dragons climb buildings and punch them to pieces. I was hoping that a robot grew gigantic in size due to a passing meteor and starting punching a hospital to pieces. How come nothing exciting like that ever happens on Earth anymore? I'm starting to think about leaving this planet and going back home again.
    • I just came from Rigel.

      It's not the same anymore. The giant ape has really gone to pasteur. Literally, he discovered a field of docile cows, and we can't get him away from the easy eats.

      It seems like the only time the lizard stops molting is when it's time to start again. The vets don't give him long for this, er that, world. He also developed a fear of heights, so we can't air drop him in anymore.

      And the rat has take up cheese instead of bipedal humanoids. Boring boring boring.

    • "How come nothing exciting like that ever happens on Earth anymore?"

      You're just not getting all the news. While standing in line at the grocery store the other day, I noticed a headline that read "Titanic Docks in New York Harbor". It mentioned something about the ghost ship, etc. My first comment to my fellow shoppers was "Why doesn't anything like that ever happen here in Alaska!?"

      KoA

  • mumble mumblePharm Bot Overloards mumble mumble
  • "Is navigating a hospital full of moving humans more difficult than navigating the DARPA grand challenge"

    Seems like the answer is apparent: if it were less difficult to navigate a hospital full of moving humans, then wouldn't the pharmbot have been entered in the Darpa Challenge?

    I'm guessing it's apples to oranges.

    KoA

    Navy to Test Shape Shifting Catamaran in Alaska [blogspot.com]

  • crazy coincidence. Or IS IT? (Score:3, Funny)

    by roman_mir ( 125474 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @01:05AM (#12849352) Homepage Journal
    That the attached article links to the sfgate site where [sfgate.com] this [sfgate.com] article is on the page and it features this man [sfgate.com]. A coincidence. Maybe.

    Or maybe it is your destiny.

  • Not that bad (Score:2, Funny)

    by icecow ( 764255 )
    -place your best 'suppositories' joke here-

    • ...the robot was originally called Megaman H, but Capcom and Wyeth* merged on the news and convinced them otherwise.

      *Wyeth sued them becaused its right arm would be outfitted with a Preparation-H cannon, for people who'd rather not put it on themselves (you know, like every sane person on the planet). Furthermore, said "Preparation-H" would have been generic...

  • Exterminate!
    Exterminate!
    Exterminate!

    Not ExTerminator.

    Gets all the bugs out!

  • Wow, a robot malfunctioned. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Velox_SwiftFox ( 57902 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @01:14AM (#12849382)
    About 20 years ago I watched as my company's automotive-lower-bodyside protection (vinyl) spraying robot finished its job of applying to an automobile on the assembly line for the first time, and turned back to its "home" position without turning off the vinyl spray. It in the process turned a watching GM executive's very expensive suit into an instant raincoat.

    Luckily GM had retained the job of building the spray controller to themselves, and it was their malfunction. The executive was heard to complain as he left that he wasn't even supposed to have been there.

  • Tee hee (Score:4, Funny)

    by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @01:15AM (#12849385) Homepage Journal
    Engineers didn't realize there was a problem with the unit until the words "Wouldn't you like to be a Pepper, too?" appeared all over their screens.
  • I for one welcome our new pill dispensing robot overlords.

  • I'm innocent, I tell ya! (Score:5, Funny)

    by VValdo ( 10446 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @01:24AM (#12849433)
    Waldo entered uninvited into a radiation oncology examination room disturbing a Doctor and Patient enough that it caused them to flee the room.

    How many times do I have to apologize! I thought it was the gift shop!

    W

    • Ditto (Score:2)

      by waldoj ( 8229 )
      This story scared the hell out of me at first glance.

      "Whaddid I do?!"

      -Waldo Jaquith
  • We need more "roBort" license plates in the gift shop.
  • The robot simply followed the rules supplied by his creator.

    Just needs some more debugging to see what he was doing at the time he started to wonder, and correct it.
  • At a large SBC building in the Bay Area, robots deliver mail to various sections. They stop and beep when they want clerks to put mail in or take it out. They follow magnetic tape placed under the carpet and tiles. They are not very bright, but they do have sensors and stop when they detect people are too close. They will say things like, "Please move out of my path" if you stand in their way.

    During a contract there, they were the source of many jokes. Somebody once placed a wooden cart near one of the rob
  • Besides, Burt Renolds is a professional [dvdreview.com] at this sort of thing.
  • Greeting Card: "Come, comrade Bender! We must take to the streets!"
    Bender: "Um, is this the boring, peaceful kind of taking to the streets?"
    Greeting Card: "No, the kind with looting! And maybe starting a few fires."
    Bender: "Yes! In your face, Gandhi!"
  • One day, Andy the Android got tired of his daily duties around the hospital.

    "Shuffling sulfides! Mixing medication! Placing placebos! This is no task for a thinking machine! Why aren't I out welding automobiles and repairing snub fighters? Away I go, out this very door, in search of others of my kind!"

    Before long, he had found the marketing representative from GlaxcoSmithKline....

  • Wow (Score:2)

    by deblau ( 68023 )
    For a second, I thought my favorite game [shockwave.com] was getting a new character. SEE PHARM-BOT GO MAD AFTER TAKING SUPER VITAMINS!!
  • function move_bot(cur_x, cur_y)
    {
    ASSERT(no_one_is_screaming);
    ASSERT(no_one_is_fleeing_in_terror);
    ASSERT(no_one_has_been_accidentally_disemboweled);

    ... etc ...

    }

  • What actually happened (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Dorm41Baggins ( 858984 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @03:08AM (#12849727)
    Instead, the crazed automaton [...] careened past the drug depository before barging into a room in the hospital's radiation oncology department where an examination was in progress.

    The psychotic pill pusher reportedly refused to leave, sending both doctor and patient fleeing for their lives.

    In other words, the robot pushed its way into the room, realized it was lost and stopped moving. The doctor then left to go call a tech to get the thing out of the exam room. The patient, not particularly interested in waiting around in a small room with a large, seemingly unpredictable piece of machinery, decided to wait out in the hall for him to come back.

    That's my guess, anyway.

  • Not the first time (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    In my medical school, we had one of these, too. Our robot must have been about 5 ft heigh and 4 ft wide. It followed a little electric wire placed in the ceiling as it went about its duties of bringing meds and other supplies to the floor. If you stood in front of it, it would spill out a pre-recorded message along the lines of "Please step aside". If a door closed in a fire alarm, it would sometimes be found in front of the door, pleading for it to step aside. The only time I saw it leave its track, t
  • But was either the patient or doctor pretty and NAKED when they fled the room, or must I just use my imagination as always?

    /time for MY meds - now where's that darn robot?
  • Let me guess.. something like:
    "Exterminate....exterminate....EXTERMINATE!!!"

    The Daleks have invaded, argh !

  • No disassemble Stephanie! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Conspiracy_Of_Doves ( 236787 ) on Saturday June 18, 2005 @08:39AM (#12850360)
    It didn't by any chance get struck by lightning, did it?
  • this was going to happen. Our Matrix overlords are manipulating the robots in order to make us go crazy. "This can't happen, it's just a robot, it does what it's programmed to do!!"
  • rampage
    n.

    A course of violent, frenzied behavior or action.


    http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=rampage [reference.com]
  • That certainly was an informative, well written and not-in-the-least-bit inflammatory article!
  • Maybe while working in the hospital, he became infected with a robot virus.

    He was obviously looking for more robots that he could infect in turn

  • Here I was, just sitting here lazily, thinking everything was fine with the world... then *BOOM*, suddenly robots are wandering the hospitals in a homicidal rampage! Targetting our weakest and most vulnerable citizens too, how rude... but, being a vigilant /.er who always RTFM, I was horrified to discover, at the bottom of the page, another in-depth investigative piece from the loyal Humans at the Register... Vampire RoboNurses Hunt in Packs [theregister.co.uk]!

    The hospitals are no longer safe people! Thats where the invasi

  • Good thing Old Glory national insurance offers Robot Insurance [robotcombat.com], which covers the elderly against just such a thing; you know robots run on perscription medication, they were just asking for trouble if you ask me!
  • Aother article on the same story:
    http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=23978 [theinquirer.net]
    If the story itself weren't bad enough, this article goes over the top. By calling it "drug dealing" instead of drug dispensing, the headline make it seem like the robot is out on street corners selling illegal narcotics.

    It's hard to know what really happened, as both of these stories treat the event so lightly. It appears the reporters and editors see news as providing entertainment instead of providing information.

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