Skip to content
Research Article Open access CC BY 4.0

Optimization of Operation Strategy for Collection Systems of Biohazard Wastes in Hospitals Based on Autonomous Robots: A Heuristic Approach

Tamás Bányai, Izteleuova Maral, Béla Illés, Ágota Bányai, Péter Tamás

Asian Journal of Research in Computer Science · pp. 33–43 · Published 6 Jun 2020

10.9734/ajrcos/2020/v5i430142

Abstract

The increasing rate of hospital admission led to increased volume of both municipal and biohazard wastes. The fourth industrial revolution opens up new perspectives to improve the conventional processes of hospitals and other institutions of health care systems. The application of new technologies integrated into the solutions of Industry 4.0 makes it possible to improve the efficiency of processes of hospitals not only in the field of medicine, but also in the field of other services, like logistics and supply chain. Within the frame of this article the authors are focusing on the development of new operation strategies for biohazard waste collection in hospitals using smart bins and autonomous waste collection vehicles/robots. The literature review helps to identify research gaps in the field of biohazard waste collection in hospitals. After that, the article describes the mathematical model of the waste collection system including smart bins, autonomous collection vehicles, users (patients and health professionals). The mathematical model has a time-based objective function, while time-, capacity- and safety-related constraints are also taken into consideration. The mathematical problem is an NP-hard problem; therefore, we use the non-linear regression and evolutive options of Excel Solver to find the optimal solution. The numerical scenarios validate the model and show the advantages of using new technologies in health care institutes, like hospitals.

Health care industry 4.0 logistics optimization routing waste collection.

References (19)

  1. 1 Measuring the logistics performance of internal hospital supply chains – A literature study [DOI]
  2. 2 Material logistics in hospitals: A literature review [DOI]
  3. 3 An Agent-Based Simulation Approach to Model Hospital Logistics [DOI]
  4. 4 Scheduling logistic activities to improve hospital supply systems [DOI]
  5. 5 Mobile hospital robots cure numerous logistic needs [DOI]
  6. 6 Logistics innovation process revisited: insights from a hospital case study [DOI]
  7. 7 Optimizing sterilization logistics in hospitals [DOI]
  8. 8 A framework to analyze hospital-wide patient flow logistics: Evidence from an Italian comparative study [DOI]
  9. 9 Exploring improvements in patient logistics in Dutch hospitals with a survey [DOI]
  10. 10 Waste management at airports [DOI]
  11. 11 Factors impacting technology adoption in hospital bed logistics [DOI]
  12. 12 An Optimization Model for Managing the Drug Logistics Process in a Public Hospital Supply Chain Integrating Physical and Economic Flows [DOI]
  13. 13 Optimal logistics strategy to distribute medicines in clinics and hospitals [DOI]
  14. 14 A robust stochastic decision-making model for inventory allocation of surgical supplies to reduce logistics costs in hospitals: A case study [DOI]
  15. 15 Logistics planning for hospital pharmacy trusteeship under a hybrid of uncertainties [DOI]
  16. 16 Decision Support Simulation Method for Process Improvement of Electronic Product Testing Systems [DOI]
  17. 17 Parameters involved in the internal reverse logistics of a hospital pharmacy [DOI]
  18. 18 Robustness Analysis of Bipartite Task Assignment Networks: A Case Study in Hospital Logistics System [DOI]
  19. 19 10.17270/j.log.2016.4.6 [DOI]

Cited by 4

Operationalizing Robotic and Autonomous Systems for Disaster Response and Emergency Logistics

Eva Lee, Michael D. Wright, Taylor J. Leonard · Annual Meeting of the IEEE Industry Applications Society · 2025

Examples for the application of rule-based algorithms in the simulation modeling of the physical separation of automated guided vehicles

R. Skapinyecz · Advanced Logistic Systems - Theory and Practice · 2023

Information Flow Optimization for Practice of University Mathematics Interaction Platform Construction

Fang-Bo Hou · 2021 5th International Conference on Electronics, Communication and Aerospace Technology (ICECA) · 2021

Showing 3 of 4 known citations — external sources report more than can currently be individually listed.

Related research

Article metrics

Real usage data collected on this platform.

42

Page views

0

PDF downloads

6

Outbound clicks

4

Citations

Views over time

Views by country

Approximate, from request IP at view time — not citizenship or institution. Countries with fewer than 5 views are grouped as "Other".

Traffic sources

Referring site, by host.

Views and downloads exclude known bots/crawlers. Citations combines this platform's own DOI-resolved index with each external source's own reported total — see Cited by above for individually listed citing works. Last refreshed 0 seconds ago.