Henrik Christensen, director of the UC San diego Robotics Research Institute, argues that robots can be used for clinical care, remote treatment and decontamination. Robots can also be involved in logistics such as delivery, handling contaminated waste and monitoring compliance with voluntary quarantine.
In addition, robots have been deployed to disinfect, distribute medicine and food, measure vital signs and assist border control.
Professor Christensen particularly emphasized the role of robots that can play a role in disinfecting and cleaning areas where COVID-19 patients are present.
Other co-authors include Marcia McNutt, president of the National Research Council and president of the National Academy of Sciences, as well as a number of other robotic experts from international and US universities. To this issue, the current pandemic situation is complicated by global developments.
The researchers said that the deployment of robots in social work can provide treatment opportunities without fear of spreading more diseases to the community. However, this is a challenging development area because social interactions require the construction and maintenance of complex human models, including knowledge, beliefs, emotions, and like context and interactive environment.
Given the current situation, scientists believe that the impact of COVID-19 could promote sustainable research on robots to address the risk of infectious diseases. Without a sustainable approach to research and evaluation, history will repeat and robot technology will not be ready to support the next incident, which will be a serious omission.
