How robots can help combat COVID-19

Can robots be effective tools in combating the COVID-19 pandemic? A group of leaders in the field of robotics, including Henrik Christensen, director of UC San Diego's Contextual Robotics Institute, say yes, and outline a number of examples in an editorial in the March 25 issue of Science Robotics. They say robots can be used for clinical care such as telemedicine and decontamination; logistics such as delivery and handling of contaminated waste; and reconnaissance such as monitoring compliance with voluntary quarantines.

"Already, we have seen robots being deployed for disinfection, delivering medications and food, measuring vital signs, and assisting border controls," the researchers write.

Christensen, who is a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at UC San Diego, particularly highlighted the role that robots can play in disinfection, cleaning and telepresence.

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 robotics experts from international and U.S. universities.

"For disease prevention, robot-controlled noncontact ultraviolet (UV) surface disinfection has already been used because COVID-19 spreads not only from person to person via close contact respiratory droplet transfer but also via contaminated surfaces," the researchers write.

"Opportunities lie in intelligent navigation and detection of high-risk, high-touch areas, combined with other preventative measures," the researchers add. "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."

In terms of telepresence, "the deployment of social robots can present unique opportunities for continued social interactions and adherence to treatment regimes without fear of spreading more disease," researchers write. "However, this is a challenging area of development because social interactions require building and maintaining complex models of people, including their knowledge, beliefs, emotions, as well as the context and environment of interaction."

"COVID-19 may become the tipping point of how future organizations operate," researchers add. "Rather than cancelling large international exhibitions and conferences, new forms of gathering -- virtual rather than in-person attendance -- may increase. Virtual attendees may become accustomed to remote engagement via a variety of local robotic avatars and controls."

"Overall, the impact of COVID-19 may drive sustained research in robotics to address risks of infectious diseases," researchers go on. "Without a sustainable approach to research and evaluation, history will repeat itself, and technology robots will not be ready ready to assist for the next incident."

Although the premise sounds nice, a lot of issues arise from the deployment of robots in everyday life. The first obviously being unemployment. If robots replace humans in otherwise high-risk jobs, such as nuclear waste removal, many persons will be out of a job, degrees wasted and overally, a rise in poverty and crime could occur. If persons are left without a job, how will they finance the lifestyle they and their families live? How are bills and mortgages, student loans and college fees to be paid? After all, most of these individuals would have children- some still in middle or high school and others in college. In doing so, many may have to earnestly search for a way to gather the funds needed for another degree in a sector least-likely to have robotic influence and in the event that legally attempting to fails, they will search for other avenues regardless of the risk of being scammed or arrested.

Another issue with this is the robots themselves. The amount of government founding needed to execute a project of such a scale is bound to be costly and in the long-run, not as valuable as once thought. Robots need to be serviced. They require high amounts of electricity to function- most of them. They'd also need to be maintained since not all will likely have the intelligence to carry out such a task. A large amount of workers in the fields of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence will be needed and because of this demand, the cost for getting an education in these fields may rise which would mean there might always be a shortage. Remember those unemployed persons we spoke about? They'll likely try to signup for bootcamps or online courses or directly apply to university again to be qualified for positions in the AI sector. However, some universities don't give out a second bachelor's degree and the ones that do will likely take the opportunity to raise the cost of their programs as the market will become highly competitive. Now there will be an oversupply of individuals who are able and ready to work- persons from the older generation and children from the younger generation as well. Even if those unemployed persons weren't removed but given other jobs, a degree that would qualify a person to even work in those fields takes years if a Master's or PHd is required. But will happen to the persons who those unemployed people replaced? It might turn into a cycle or the cut off age to work may be lowered.

In addition to this, the issue of contamination may still be a problem. To manufacture these robots will surely end up producing toxic materials that we may not be able to identify as toxic until much later in the future. Also, in producing them, a lot of heat will be generated as these processes will likely be automated to process them in batch. Global warming already being a problem may worsen, so what would be the point in making robots to solve one problem only to be faced with a problem that is far more difficult to provide a solution to? Seeing as the robots will be made of physical materials, there is a possibility of them becoming carriers of these diseases. Although measure have been taken to develop products to combat this, people tend to forget that we live in a world of constant evolution, so therefore, the noncontact UV may work for some time until another virus or bacteria develops/evolves to breach that measure; and when it does, a virus or bacteria much stronger than its predecessor will step forth. Some viruses and bacteria can survive on surfaces for a short time but seeing as these robots will likely be in constant contact with one another, can spread and multiply until it reaches the human servicer/programmer who may transfer it to colleagues and in the end another breakout can occur. But what if these robots are delivery robots? They will store or carry packages, the bacteria can get transfered there, the postal carriers will get it while handling it and again, it could spread unknowingly from one locale to the next, more rampant than a few closed borders could handle.

Robots are susceptible to hacking. So information that is supposed to be confidential and private can be accessed by unauthorised individuals. Not even the greatest firewall, antivirus or encryption techniques are fool-proof. So the information that was private or key in a case could be corrupted, deleted or tampered with, which would lead to high costs in repairs and retrieval of the data and the hiring of experts to investigate the culprits.

Virtual gatherings might seem all well and good but socialization heavily depends on physical contact with persons as intimacy and warmth can be transmitted this way. To remove physical gatherings would likely lead to more persons remaining indoors, the cost of virtual attendance rising, network failure and a bunch of hardware and software related issues that could lead to losses on a business' part, since most people would vie for a refund in the event the page or app crashes from the amount of attendees. Again, hackers could cause tickets to be 'purchased' through illicit methods and resold at a higher price to individuals scourging the internet for private websites and black markets. Cybercrimes could increase especially if persons find it unnecessarily expensive to attend a virtual gathering that they are accessing from their homes or cities. The ability to converse with individuals in-person can become difficult as well since most persons would be more accustomed to texting or FaceTiming. So when faced with a situation in which they have to speak in-person and hold a conversation, it may become more difficult. Social anxiety issues may develop and the amount of 'hermits' in a city or country may rise, which may lead to the need for programmes and seminars to rehabilitate these individuals back into society. All of which cost money obviously.

All in all, the amount of future cons to arise due to the advancement of technology will foreseeably lead to an overall decline in the birth of healthy persons- healthy referring to the physical, mental, emotional and social well-being of a person- since people will begin to work from home, learn online, attend virtual concerts and parties and befriend virtual friends (robotic ones) all of which have a severely negative impact that outweighs the pros.

Thanks for that amazing input my friend!