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Automated Systems, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence: Question 3

Syllabus 6.2

Structured 8 marks

A hospital pharmacy installs a machine to select the correct medicine packets from a wall of storage shelves and pack a patient's daily doses into an individual tray, a task pharmacy assistants previously did by hand for every prescription.

(a) State three characteristics of this pharmacy machine that mean it can correctly be called a robot, rather than simply "an automated machine". [3]

(b) Describe how the robot's sensors, microprocessor and actuators work together to select and pack the correct medicine into one patient's tray. [3]

(c) Give one advantage and one disadvantage, to the hospital, of using this robot instead of pharmacy assistants packing prescriptions by hand. [2]

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Worked solution

Part (a): Characteristics of a robot

A robot is defined by three characteristics, all of which apply to the pharmacy machine:

  1. A mechanical structure or framework. For example a robotic arm and gripper that can physically reach the shelves and move medicine packets.
  2. Electrical components, sensors (to identify packets), a microprocessor (to process prescription data and control movement) and actuators (motors that drive the arm and gripper).
  3. It is programmable. It can be given new instructions, for example reprogrammed to handle new medicines, new tray layouts or new dosing schedules, rather than being fixed to a single task forever.

Part (b): How the sensors, microprocessor and actuators combine

  • A scanner (sensor) on the arm reads the barcode on each medicine packet as the arm passes the shelf, sending this data to the microprocessor.
  • The microprocessor compares the scanned code with the prescription data stored for that patient (which medicine, and how many doses, are still required).
  • If the packet matches an item still needed, the microprocessor sends a signal to the actuators, the motors in the arm and gripper, to pick up that packet and place it in the correct compartment of the patient’s tray.
  • If the packet does not match anything still needed, the arm moves on without picking it up.
  • This repeats, shelf by shelf, until every item on the prescription has been added to the tray.

Part (c): Advantage and disadvantage for the hospital

Advantage: the robot can pack prescriptions far faster and more consistently than a person, is not affected by tiredness late in a shift, and frees pharmacy assistants for other patient-facing work.

Disadvantage: the robot is expensive to buy, install and maintain, and staff need training to operate and repair it. If it develops a fault or is given incorrect prescription data, it could pack the wrong dose into many trays before anyone notices.

Final answers

  • (a) Any three of: mechanical structure/framework; electrical components (sensors, microprocessor, actuators); programmable.
  • (b) Sensor scans the packet → microprocessor checks it against stored prescription data → actuators (motors) pick and place the correct packet.
  • (c) Advantage: faster, more consistent packing, freeing staff for other tasks. Disadvantage: high cost to buy/maintain, and an unnoticed fault could affect many patients’ doses.