Robots as intelligent assistants to face COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Motivation The epidemic at the beginning of this year, due to a new virus in the coronavirus family, is causing many deaths and is bringing the world economy to its knees. Moreover, situations of this kind are historically cyclical. The symptoms and treatment of infected patients are, for better or worse even for new viruses, always the same: more or less severe flu symptoms, isolation and full hygiene. By now man has learned how to manage epidemic situations, but deaths and negative effects continue to occur. What about technology? What effect has the actual technological progress we have achieved? In this review, we wonder about the role of robotics in the fight against COVID. It presents the analysis of scientific articles, industrial initiatives and project calls for applications from March to now highlighting how much robotics was ready to face this situation, what is expected from robots and what remains to do. Results The analysis was made by focusing on what research groups offer as a means of support for therapies and prevention actions. We then reported some remarks on what we think is the state of maturity of robotics in dealing with situations like COVID-19.

A Survey on Human-aware Robot Navigation

“…Yang et al [171] propose and test a telerobotic system, that combined medical expertise with the adherence to "social distancing" guidelines. In their review, Seidita et al [172] examined published works and projects in the areas of clinical care, logistics and reconnaissance. On the logistics side, robots can deliver protective material such as PPE, medication or potentially dangerous waste.…”

“…Similarly to standard cleaning robots, those robots can employ coverage-based exploration algorithms. On the topic of reconnaissance, robots have been used to monitor patients during quarantine and alleviated isolation in cases where in-person visits would have posed a risk [172].…”

Untitled

“…The robot is one of the promising gadgets as it furnishes actual functionalities with powerful friendly removing among the patients and the clinical staff 18 . Autonomy and self-adaption of the robotic framework -There is still a great deal of work that need to do on this perspective 1 . Robotic response to COVID-19 has been restricted to very advanced drives, yet these are restricted in useful limit 19 .…”

“…The creators have fostered a model to approve the speculations they have imagined and the functionalities of the framework. The work offers numerous future examination thoughts, particularly in multi-specialist frameworks and advanced mechanics applied to medical care and self-versatile self-governing frameworks 1 . The robot takes over the task from people, for instance (a) Autonomy: Not all medical services robots are independent robots, for instance, careful robots are far off constrained by the expert specialist b) Moral organization: Robots don't seem to have the ability of good thinking are managing dependable hazardous situations 11 .…”

COVID-19 and public support for autonomous technologies—Did the pandemic catalyze a world of robots?

“…New robotic innovations, designed to keep humans safe and healthy, debuted as a response to the pandemic. From automated food delivery to avatar bedside doctors, robotic sentries, and temperature takers-COVID-19 catalyzed a global interest in artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous technologies [1][2][3].…”