AUSTIN, Texas -- Nurses in Austin got a look at what could be their future hospital assistant.
Poli the Robot visited Seton Medical Center Austin on Tuesday.
The hospital teamed up with a robotics company to study how robots can be used to make nurses' days easier.
The hope is that Poli will eventually be able to understand workflow, fetch supplies, and give nurses more time to focus on the patients.
"Our robots don't go into the patient's room. We're doing everything outside of the rooms. We're running around the halls, we're running into the storage closets. So, we want nurses to be telling us everything that's keep them away from having direct patient care, that's some of the things that we want to think about automating," said Andrea Thomaz, CEO of Diligent Droids.
Research shows nurses are spending about 30 percent of their time fetching and gathering.
"Time is precious and we want to spend our time with our patients, not on non-clinical tasks that a robot can do," said Kristi Henderson, Seton's vice president of virtual care and innovation, and lead investigator of the study. "The community trusts us to provide person-centered care, and this is just one more way we are doing that. We're constantly working to improve the patient's experience."
Poli, who walks and talks on its own, has been programmed to follow simple directions for perfunctory actions like assembling packages and refilling supply bins. It also knows how to navigate hospital spaces without getting in the way of others, among various abilities.
"We named her Poli because she does so many things," said Thomaz.
The robot prototype was originally developed at UT Austin's Cockrell School of Engineering.
This is the second time Poli's visited the Seton Medical Center.
However, it will be a while before she officially joins the hospital staff.
Thomaz said the goal is to have Poli functioning incrementally over the next few years.