Healthcare workers responsible for sterilizing highly-infectious areas are at risk of contracting this extremely contagious virus. Doctors and nurses are regularly exposed to COVID-19 while taking temperatures and collecting nasal swabs when examining patients. The staff responsible for sterilizing hospitals face the same danger. On another note, chemical sterilizers may also be dangerous if not handled properly.
To mitigate risks, China is allocating these tasks to robots. In March 2020, a field hospital with an integrated team of robots was inaugurated inside Hongshan Sports Centre in Wuhan, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in China. This experimental facility, called the Smart Field Hospital, aimed at alleviating the burden of healthcare workers, even if the outbreak has slowed down in recent weeks.
Robots and other IoT-based devices provide all medical services within the facility, including temperature checks using 5G thermometers to alert the staff in case of a high fever. Moreover, patients wear IoT smart bracelets and rings from CloudMinds to monitor their vital signs, such as temperature, heart rate, and blood oxygen levels. Doctors and nurses also wear the same devices to detect any early signs of infection.
Outside field hospitals, China used robots to help medical staff perform their daily tasks during the outbreak. These tasks include sterilization, as Chinese hospitals benefited from these robots to sterilize rooms with ultraviolet light which decontaminates surfaces without exposing anyone to the risk of infection. Moreover, a healthcare worker is assigned to control the robots from a safe distance.
Some Chinese hospitals adopted mobile robots that were stationed near the entrances to examine patients and check their temperature without human intervention, thus relieving some of the health workers’ burden.
Due to the rapid spread of the virus, people are advised to reduce human interaction to a minimum. Accordingly, technology companies started deploying more robots to perform certain tasks, such as delivering medical supplies within healthcare environments. Furthermore, robots have proven to be effective in delivering essential goods for quarantined people who shop online from home. For example, Meituan Dianping is an application that offers “contactless delivery” through autonomous vehicles and robots.
Robots are also used within e-store warehouses to automate the completion and organization of orders. Alibaba’s logistics company, referred to as the Chinese Amazon, uses robots to organize warehouses and distribute medical supplies to regions that need it the most, like Wuhan, to perform examinations and treat COVID-19 cases.
In another example, the food delivery platform Ele.me has relied on robots to deliver meals for individuals quarantined at hotels in case they were suspected to have contracted COVID-19. Many of these companies have tested the robot delivery service or tried it on a small scale. However, the high demand resulting from the outbreak pushed them to expand the scope of their robotic services. Moreover, robots were also introduced to the kitchen to prepare and serve food in restaurants.
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