Robots join the battle to defeat Coronavirus

Minimizing human contact and the threat of Coronavirus transmission, robots are being deployed in many parts of the world for jobs such as sanitizing hospitals and delivering food and medicines. For instance, field hospital staffed with 14 robots (supplied by Beijing-based robotics company CloudMinds) opened in the Hongshan Sports Center in Wuhan, China, where the pandemic began. This is in tandem with the World Health Organisation’s advise to maintain a distance to prevent the spread of this infectious disease. 

Experiments are already underway in India too to increase their role in combating COVID-19, that has infected more than 7,00,000 people globally and claimed more than 30,000 lives so far. Jaipur’s Sawai Man Singh Government Hospital is conducting a series of trials on a humanoid robot to check if it can be pressed into service for delivering medicines, and food to the COVID-19 patients admitted there. Similarly, Kerala-based startup Asimov Robotics has developed a three-wheeled robot that it says can be used to assist patients in isolation wards.