The Role of Robotics in Combating COVID-19

Automation technology has been an established trend for well before the advent of COVID-19. It seems as if robotics would be a natural solution to help alleviate healthcare systems and treat patients without the need for human input. However, the situation is a bit more complicated than that. At the moment, automation occupies a unique niche, where human assistance is required more often than not to ensure proper functionality. Regardless, robots still have important roles to play when it comes to supporting beleaguered human workers and monitoring the ongoing spread of the virus.

While it’s difficult to entrust robots with direct patient care due to the decision-making involved, robots could perform peripheral tasks that lower the risk of infection for healthcare workers and others still in contact with the public. In particular, using robots to manage sanitation, surface disinfection, and routine patient measurement has merit in reducing human risk. Outside of hospitals, robots have applications in delivering food and supplies as well as mass disinfection of public spaces. In China, some autonomous vehicles originally intended for agriculture have been put to work in such a way.

However, the exact scale of robots is limitless. In an editorial of Science Robotics leading researchers in the field weighed in on what they see as opportunities to improve medical robots.

“Opportunities lie in intelligent navigation and detection of high-risk, high-touch areas, combined with other preventative measures,” the researchers noted. “New generations of large, small, micro-, and swarm robots that are able to continuously work and clean (i.e., not only removing dust but also truly sanitizing/sterilizing all surfaces) could be developed.”

Robotics also provides a new frontier when it comes to telehealth communication. It’s difficult to discuss the field of robotics without also mentioning AI, and AI systems can be critical in both tracking the treatment and spread of the virus. Systems can even make their own diagnoses and share without human medical professionals needing to be in harm’s way.

One specific subset of robotics might be the key to solving some of the biggest challenges associated with COVID-19. Soft robots can even be called a new field. Their sensors and controllers are made of soft materials for applications that hard robots are not suitable for, such as handling fragile objects, collaborative work among robots, or interfacing with humans. Prof. George M. Whitesides reviewed soft robotics in 2018, noting that the field is “intellectually and technologically different from hard robotics.”

A soft gripper , for example, is easy to sterilize and can pick up objects of various sizes with no adjustment needed. This technology is particularly useful to automate supply chains (as many are closing doors after employees tested positive for COVID-19), as well as packaging processes (e.g. at warehouses of Amazon and Walmart). Specialized robots have already been created for logistics in pharma and could further reduce potential human touchpoints when managing the pandemic. At the Harvard Biodesign Lab , fluidic actuators have been explored for its potential in creating rehabilitative devices. It’s not a stretch to imagine the widespread use of soft robots in hospitals and nursing homes to handle sensitive medical equipment and assist physiotherapy rehabilitation.

It’s hard to imagine robots fully replacing human personnel anytime soon, but the role of modern robotics in our healthcare system should be viewed as supplementary, performing tasks to help free up patient bottlenecks and ensure the safety of healthcare workers. In particular, the field of soft robotics may provide new opportunities to automate medical processes without removing the empathy necessary for patient care.

Originally published at https://haihuijoyjiang.co.