The pandemic has been good for one kind of worker: robots | National Geographic
Now that any job involving human contact is considered hazardous, demand for mechanical replacements has skyrocketed.
FEAUTURED IN SEPTEMBER 2020’S ISSUE: THE ROBOT REVOLUTION
BY DAVID BERREBY | PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 3, 2020
First responders
In the pandemic's first few weeks, hospitals and clinics sought robots to respond to the immediate catastrophe, Murphy says —just as people have deployed robots after earthquakes, mine collapses, and terrorist attacks over the past 20 years. Last spring, hospitals in Europe, Asia, and North America were acquiring robots for "telemedicine" (using the robot to connect patients and doctors) and "telepresence," where patients use the robot to see and speak with loved ones. Others bought robots that independently enter a room and disinfect it with chemicals or ultraviolet light. Public-safety authorities dispatched robots (on streets or in the air) to disinfect public spaces and to look for people violating stay-inside orders.
Many roboticists—used to public fears about safety, privacy, creepiness or job losses—were surprised to see resistance to the machines evaporate.
"Things that would have maybe taken us six months are now opening up immediately, and regulations have been loosened at a surprisingly fast rate," says Anthony Nunez, whose Virginia company, INF Robotics, makes an eldercare robot called Rudy. Home care agencies he deals with have had to cut back workers, Nunez says, because in a pandemic many elderly people no longer wish to have close contact with human aides.
Hospitals and other medical facilities now "are trying to run with minimum number of people, to minimize the exposure that people have to disease," says Andrea Thomaz, co-founder and CEO of Diligent Robotics, which makes a robot nurse assistant called Moxi. COVID-19 has made medical staff more aware than ever "how important it is to have their essential staff focused on the tasks at hand and not focused on any of the busy work that takes them away from patient care and clinical work," Thomaz says.
As the pandemic makes many people more accepting of robots, Murphy says, it's also making many roboticists more alert to ordinary people's needs. For example, one team of eager robot engineers approached an Italian hospital last spring with a design for a robot that could deliver food to patients. They soon learned that for isolated COVID-19 patients, mealtime “was the only time they saw people socially," Murphy explains.
So the roboticists switched problems. Instead of replacing the humans who delivered meals, they created a simple tele-presence robot that could visit patients and provide a live link to a loved one. The device was made from off-the-shelf parts, inexpensive, easy to maintain, and didn't require overworked hospital staff to spend any time on it. And patients and relatives loved being able to see and hear one another.