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agosto 14, 2020According to technology experts, artificial intelligence will bring significant change to nearly all industries, as it will allow organizations to make use of expansive amounts of data that the Internet of Things has made available, which will aid in the battle against COVID-19.
une 19, 2020 | by Elliot Maras
According to technology experts, artificial intelligence will bring significant change to nearly all industries, as it will allow organizations to make use of expansive amounts of data that the Internet of Things has made available.
And while AI has been making inroads in digital signage in recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have added a dose of urgency (and a surge of opportunities) to help businesses and organizations meet the “new normal.” The self-service industry in particular has certainly wasted no time responding to the need for temperature scanning and biometric identity verification.
What might be less obvious for the time being is the development of robots — remotely managed autonomous devices — to make physical environments safe for human activity. For the time being, but not for long.
Progress on this front was explored during a recent webinar, “Robots Fighting COVID-19,” presented by Robotteca, a provider of cloud based robotics software.
A collective industry effort
Mike Radice, chairman of the technology advisory board at Chartacloud Robotics, Robotteca’s parent company, began the webinar by explaining Robots in Solidarity, an industry effort to reduce the impacts of COVID-19. Robots in Solidarity provides temporary use of robots to those in need during the COVID-19 crisis.
One takeaway from the webinar was the degree to which robot technology providers are working in partnership to address COVID-19.
The project’s mission is: 1) Mitigate the current infectious environment. 2) Conduct post-crisis cleanup. 3) Serve as a sentinel and defense against future epidemics. 4) Serve in the “new normal.”
Labor saving crucial
“Any coronavirus recession is likely to bring about a spike in labor saving automation,” Radice said. “We’ve already seen robots coning into play to make up for staffing shortages.” He cited a Brookings Institution report saying that a coronavirus recession will likely bring an increase in labor saving automation.
Robots fight COVID-19 in three main modalities: disinfection, surveillance and risk mitigation. Surveillance involves providing alarms and warnings as well as corrective behaviors, Radice said, while risk mitigation includes electronic monitoring and immunity passports.
“One of the major aspects is the need to scale,” he said. “We need to have devices that are capable of scaling.” Millions of interactions at millions of locations will be needed.
Radice then offered an overview of some of the robots in the Robots in Solidarity project, most of which are “humanoid style” robots with AI.
“This is just the beginning,” he said.
The line up at a glance
The Cruzr robot from ZoraBots provide surveillance and provide indoor virus protection, contactless wide range temperature scanning, no-mask detection alert and video interaction. The robot can be designed to travel a specific course.
“It is an epidemic surveillance device,” Radice said.
The Aimbot from ZoraBots is a longer distance surveillance device that measures temperature and provides no-mask detection. It contains canisters with disinfectant spray controlled by a human operator walking behind the robot with a remote control device.
The Pangolin Robot is a disinfection provider that also uses spray. It can be scheduled to disinfect rooms at specific times and can be managed by remote control. Features include an HD screen, a liquid charging lid, lights, a speaker, a spray nozzle, a UV light, a hand grip, a storage tank and a smart chassis. The robot has auto navigation and obstacle avoidance and can be managed remotely with an iPad.
Amy Robotics’ robot provides UV disinfectant and sterilization, air circulating disinfecting and sterilization, and leaves no harmful residue. The unit can operate autonomously and offers multi-mode task assignments. It can also be scheduled to disinfect at specific times.
Another disinfectant robot from Amy Robotics includes a non-toxic hydrogen peroxide spray cleaner, autonomous navigation, no harmful residue, autonomous charging and cleansing.
Segway offers autonomous delivery robots used for pickup and delivery, as well as for routing materials internally.
Segway also provides personal transport devices, including a scooter for people to use instead of getting on a bus or train where they are exposed to each other in close proximity.
The Whiz robot from SoftBank is used for cleaning buildings. Higher frequency cleaning allows for deeper cleaning and reduces the risk of missed areas. The robots enable frequent cleaning since they remove the need for labor and eliminate the need for spot cleaning, which is less effective.
“It takes the guess work out of cleaning certification,” Radice said for the Whiz.
NAO humanoid robots from Softbank come with cameras that provide facial detection, speech recognition and microphones, and are being used in nursing care facilities for a variety of tasks.
The OHMNI robot from Ohmnilabs is a remote controlled unit with a speaker, microphone and HD cameras that can avoid obstacles.
The KoiBot video companion and resource robot, while not mobile, can scan 360 degrees around itself. The device, accessed via smartphone, can make video calls, provide instant language translation, take photos, record videos, deliver radio broadcasts and more.
Spoon from Chartacloud Robotics is an AI technology provider that provides proactive “safe distancing” models and is designed for human interaction.
Spoon also provides a digital kiosk with sensors that can be used for checking vitals such as body temperature and blood temperature, autonomously. Avatars, known as Spoon creatures, provide an interactive adventure.
Robots to become part of society
Radice sees a big place for Spoon technology in the post-19 crisis era.
“This is an artificial intelligence driven interface that we allow public spaces to do a number of things being driven by smart AI information kiosks,” he said. “It also allows you to get engaged with various levels of applications.”
“We believe robots will be integrated into the very fabric future life, fabric and social structure,” he said.
For an update on how the coronavirus pandemic affects the kiosk industry, click here.
Image courtesy of Chartacloud Robotics.