Abstract: In view of the situation that the injured, paralyzed or pre-and postoperative patients are mostly transferred by using manual method in hospital, a new patient transfer apparatus is presented, and the mechatronics design and application are described. Using this apparatus, one nurse can transfer the patient from a bed to a wheeled stretcher or from a wheeled stretcher to a bed without changing the patient’s posture, which eases the labor intensity of the nurse, and increases the patient’s safety sense and comfort. The development idea, mechanical design and the control system of the apparatus are described. Based on the development idea, the mechatronics design ideas of the modular mechanical construction and embedded control systems are adopted. The apparatus driven by eight motors consists of four modules and every module can be divided into upper and lower belt drive units. All control systems are installed in the apparatus, so that the apparatus and wheeled stretcher are independent of each other. The method of integrated design and constitution of mechanism are presented, and the key components are calculated. A new embedded servo system used in this apparatus is developed, and its control principle and algorithm are proposed. The experimental results of the synchronous control and the validation trials in hospital indicate that this system is safe and effective.

Key words: Control system, Mechanical design, Mechatronics design, Patient transfer, Servo system