A prescription filling robot designed for the retail pharmacy market (e.g. CVS, Walgreens, etc.) can automatically fill prescriptions from over 200 stocked medications at speeds of up to 100 fills per hour. We led the efforts in industrial design, UI design, programming, and human factors, while the client led product definition, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering, to create a minimal-footprint prescription-filling robot. We collaborated closely with the robot manufacturer on this project and the result was a standing workstation that is simple to use and can easily be adopted by any pharmacy.
The overall footprint of the machine is only 14 square feet and the depth of the unit is the equivalent of a typical pharmacy shelving unit. This means that the robot can easily be integrated into pharmacies of almost any size and shape by replacing a section of shelving with the robot. Through the touch-screen flat-panel display, the operator controls and monitors all aspects of the prescription scheduling, filling, and checking process. Prescriptions can continue to be processed even while the operator is restocking pills or vials. Signal lights on the prescription pick-up lanes correspond to the checking information displayed on the screen to aid order verification.