How the pandemic enabled a robot revolution | POLITICO
12/02/2020 10:00 AM EST
JUST WHAT THE ROBOT ORDERED: At several Texas health networks, a friendly-looking robot with a mechanical arm and blinking lights for eyes can be seen whirring around the hospital floor, ferrying lab samples and protective gear for nursing staff. At Boston’s Brigham & Women’s this summer, a roaming four-legged robot with mounted infrared cameras loped into the emergency department to take patients’ vital signs. At Los Angeles’ Adventist Health White Memorial, seven devices the size of mini-fridges zip around to disinfect patient rooms with UV light.
Whether they’re restocking supply rooms or taking patients’ heart rates, the roving machines could help contain the coronavirus’ spread by cutting down on possible exposure between staff and patients, health system leaders say. The systems were already in the early stages of piloting robots before the pandemic, but the crisis has generated more interest than ever, robotics experts tell us. The big question is whether to rush to automate is pushing aside viable existing technologies.
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Stopped at the door: Still, there are lots of mundane challenges some robots haven’t been able to overcome, like walking up stairs or opening certain types of doors. “For robots in general, the standard doorknob is still going to be most challenging,” says Andrew Rossi of Diligent Robotics, which created the Moxi robot used in the Texas health systems.
And anytime the robots are deployed to a new health system, they have to be programmed with new instructions. “We have to understand what elevators they use and how they badge in and out of doors and then we have to make adjustments,” Rossi said.