Robots and automation have been fueling imagination of science fiction lovers for generations. Hollywood thrillers featuring space and time travel invariably have humanoid robots as companions for the adventurers. While the focus of fiction writers has been on humanoid robots, the real growth has been in Industrial automation that has seen great strides in the past couple of decades.
Robots are routinely used in industry and manufacturing where they are able to accurately perform repetitive tasks that humans might find tiresome. Applications of industrial robots include welding, painting, ironing, assembly, pick and place, palletizing, product inspection, and testing – tasks that robots can perform with high endurance, speed, and precision. According to International Federation of Robotics (IFR link) an estimated 1.64 million industrial robots were in operation worldwide.
COVID-19 pandemic that also emphasized social distancing has led to a few innovations in robotics and humanoid robots.
COVID-19 – Five Robotics use cases
Robots at Hospital in Wuhan
At the height of COVID pandemic, a Beijing-based robotics company CloudMinds sent 14 robots to Wuhan, China to help with patient care. The robots were programmed to clean and disinfect, deliver medicine to patients and measure patients’ temperature.
CloudMinds’ humanoid service robot, Ginger, helped with hospital admissions, education services and, as can be seen in the video below, in providing a bit of levity. In addition to its administrative responsibilities, Ginger, “helped lift the spirits of bored quarantine patients by entertaining them with dancing,” Bill Huang said.
Robot delivery vehicles in China
A recent UNIDO report highlights “Unmanned vehicles or carts that can carry food or other items are nothing new, not in China at any rate. The JD.com e-commerce company began road-testing the country’s first domestically developed self-driving delivery vehicle in September 2016, and a number of other companies quickly joined in a race to seize the market.”
Two White Rhino vehicles were brought to Wuhan from Beijing by the company CEO and two engineers who set them up to transport medical supplies, deliver meals for doctors and patients, and complete other emergency tasks in the hospital. The use of the unmanned vehicles not only helped avoid cross-infection but also reduced the workload of the hard-pressed medical staff.
Delivery robots in an English suburb
A recent New York Times article highlights how the English town of Milton Keynes, with a population of 270,000 and a vast network of bicycle paths, is perfectly suited to rolling robots. “If any place was prepared for quarantine, it was Milton Keynes. Two years before the pandemic, a start-up called Starship Technologies deployed a fleet of rolling delivery robots in the small city about 50 miles northwest of London.”
The fleet of 80 robots will soon expand to 100. Demand has been so high in recent weeks, some residents have spent days trying to schedule a delivery. The sudden usefulness of the robots to people staying in their homes is a tantalizing hint of what the machines could one day accomplish — at least under ideal conditions.
Robot helping hospitals remotely treat coronavirus patients
Robot maker Boston Dynamics recently announced that its quadruped Spot robot is in use at a Boston hospital to help with coronavirus treatment. According to an article in The Verge, the hospital, Brigham And Women’s Hospital of Harvard University, has been using a Spot unit since last week for remote triage of patients suspected of having COVID-19.
Boston Dynamics, which was formerly owned by Google and is now owned by Japanese communications giant SoftBank, is deploying Spot as telemedicine machine. It’s using a custom mount and enclosure for an iPad or similar-sized screen to be used for video conferencing between doctors and other healthcare workers and their patients.
Rwanda enlists anti-epidemic robots in its fight against coronavirus
With 314 confirmed cases of the virus as of May 22, the East African country has enlisted the help of five anti-epidemic robots to battle the virus.The robots were donated by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to the Kanyinya treatment center that treats Covid-19 patients in the capital city, Kigali.The robots — named Akazuba, Ikirezi, Mwiza, Ngabo, and Urumuri — were received by the country’s Minister of Health and Minister of ICT and Innovation last week.
Today, at Kanyinya Treatment Centre, @UNDP_Rwanda handed over five (5) Smart Anti-Epidemic Robots to the Government of Rwanda, represented by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of ICT and Innovation. pic.twitter.com/PVeTMYJHQu
— Ministry of ICT and Innovation | Rwanda (@RwandaICT) May 19, 2020
Other reports and articles
- The Covid-19 Pandemic Is a Crisis That Robots Were Built For (Wired) Robots can help doctors distance from patients, and help those in isolation cope. But getting the machines into hospitals is fraught with difficulties.
- Top VCs discuss how COVID-19 is impacting robotics (TechCrunch ) – For years, robotics and automation have been a looming presence in a number of fields ranging from shipping and fulfillment to construction sites and operating rooms. But the novel coronavirus could well be the disruption that accelerates the adoption of these technologies.
- Robots Have Fallen Short During Covid-19 And Science Fiction Predicted It (Inverse) – Robots are playing an important role in this global pandemic. But, just because these robots may not be the healthcare heroes of science fiction, that doesn’t mean they’re not doing their part, Murphy writes.
- 10 Examples Of Robots Helping To Fight COVID (Forbes)
- The Robot Report – COVID-19 Coverage