Are Robots Emerging as a Game Changer During Covid-19?
Published on : Monday 13-04-2020
In the last few months, the Covid-19 pandemic has created chaos from individuals’ lives to businesses across the world. The continuous increasing virus outbreak raises anxiety in the global health systems and forces health leaders to look for innovative ways to prevent the virus from spreading. However, we have today new technologies in place, including Artificial Intelligence, Automation technology like robotics and others.
Since we have already seen the potentials of robotics in performing monotonous, dull tasks across various business functions, its use is increasing in health care to reduce human exposure to pathogens. Many companies are increasingly deploying robots for disinfection, delivering medications and food, measuring potential Covid-19 symptoms, and helping border controls.
In this context, ATRIS, AIMBOT, and Cruzr robots from UBTECH Robotics have been deployed at a Shenzhen hospital specialized in treating patients with Covid-19. The robots, which are often used in retail and hospitality areas, were modified to do tasks that can help keep the hospital safer for everyone, especially front-line healthcare workers, according to the company. The robots are able to make video-conferencing between patients and doctors, monitor body temperatures of visitors and patients, and disinfecting coronavirus-affected areas.
Robots can also perform more tasks as it works autonomously, without human intervention, what just need is programming. In the present pandemic, the potentials of robotics are becoming increasingly clear.
During the 2015 Ebola outbreak, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Science Foundation organized workshops that identified three broad areas where robotics can make a difference, first clinical care, including telemedicine and decontamination; second logistics, such as delivery and handling of contaminated waste; and third reconnaissance, e.g., monitoring compliance with voluntary quarantines. In fact, many of these applications are being actively explored in China, even though in limited areas and many as proofs of concept.
In the case of clinical care, including disease prevention, diagnosis and screening, and patient care and disease management, robotics solutions play essential roles. For example, for disease prevention, robot-controlled noncontact ultraviolet surface disinfection is being utilized, as Covid-19 spreads not only from person to person via close contact respiratory droplet transfer but via contaminated surfaces as well. On the other side, the use of mobile robots for measuring temperature in public areas and ports of entry represents a significant use of advanced technologies.
Hence, as Covid-19 has disrupted manufacturing, supply chain and overall economy around the world, the use of emerging technologies is becoming evident and in this way, we believe, robotics can be a useful technology in the Covid-19 pandemic, which has interrupted hard the 21st-century world.