Five years ago, the world changed dramatically.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is still unfolding to this day. It sparked a wave of automation that supercharged the development and adoption of technologies across industries.
Lockdowns, social distancing measures, staff shortages, and a race for a cure pushed automation and artificial intelligence forward. Robots stepped in to take on tasks previously assumed too complex for machines. Technology quickly leapt from research labs to real-world use as investments into AI and robotics skyrocketed.
Here’s a look back at the emerging tech of that time and how a global crisis launched a new era of automation.
Wuhan’s Early Robotic Response
During the initial outbreak, China rapidly deployed a number of robots to combat the novel Coronavirus.
Robots navigated hospitals in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, disinfecting surfaces with ultraviolet light and chemicals. Service robots screened and guided patients to limit exposure to medical staff. Drones flew over streets to help enforce lockdown orders, telling citizens by loudspeaker to wear masks and stay at home.
The capabilities were rudimentary compared to today, as China aims to lead the world in AI and robotics. It spurred innovation, attracted heavy investments, and shifted the Chinese government’s priorities.
Disinfecting and Deep Cleaning Robots
In the early days of the pandemic, hospitals turned to robots for deep cleaning and disinfection.
Denmark-based UVD Robots, which pioneered autonomous ultraviolet light disinfecting units, experienced a twelve hundred percent increase in demand in 2020. The European Commission purchased more than 300 of the robots for hospitals across all member states.
In the US, Texas-based Xenex boasted the ability of its Life Strike robots to kill 99.99 percent of SARS COV-2 germs on surfaces within 2 minutes. The robots navigate wards independently with a wheeled base, disinfecting rooms within minutes with its pulsing UV light. It stops immediately if motion is detected. Their success led to long-term use in healthcare as well as places like schools, hotels and airports.
Logistics Automation
COVID-19 also drove demand for robots that assist with hospital logistics and patient care.
Austin, TX-based Diligent Robotics started developing a robot helper for hospitals named Moxi in 2017. The mobile robot had its first full-time deployments in 201. Predictably, demand surged as the novel coronavirus spread globally in early 2020.
“Diligent Robotics is a company that’s building robots to do support tasks for the clinical staff in acute care hospitals,” CEO Andrea Thomas said in an interview with the National Science Foundation (NSF). “Our company is really working on some of the core technology that’s going to enable robots to be deployed these dynamic settings.”
Moxi gets around independently on its four wheels. It can even press elevator buttons and open certain doors automatically. Its AI knows how to wait for the right floor. Its sensors and cameras help it avoid bumping into people.
The robot transports things like lab samples, medication, and supplies. It has a robotic arm with a gripper to pick up and drop off items. It does not interact with patients or get involved with medical procedures. It’s only intended to run errands so nurses and staff can focus on patient care. When its battery is low, it heads back to its charging base, similar to how Roombas are supposed to work.
Diligent Robotics says it’s shipped more than 1 million Moxi robots to US hospitals.
Social Robots
Another robot named Moxie emerged during the pandemic as a social companion for children grappling with isolation.
Pasadena-based Embodied designed the cartoonish robot to help with emotional learning and conversation skills. The exact number of Moxie robots sold is unknown but reports from 2021 indicated that more than 10,000 families had joined its waitlist.
Embodied has since gone out of business, and the robot’s cloud-based platform has been shut down.
Another small personal robot platform, Misty II, was adapted as a front-desk screening solution to greet and screen visitors. Its thermal face camera can spot fevers with a margin of error under half a percentage point.
The Rise of Spot
A more advanced option was Spot, the famous quadruped by Boston Dynamics.
The Massachusetts robotics leader introduced Spot in 2015 and made it available for sale commercially, starting at $75K, in June 2020. The robotic dog was deployed to hospitals like Brigham and Women’s in Boston, where it remotely measured patients’ vital signs.
The pandemic accelerated the development of Spot and greatly increased its demand across industries. Its advanced cameras and sensors can detect temperature, oxygen levels, breathing rate, and heart rate from 2 meters away.
“I think people are coming out of the woodwork with ideas about ways to avoid human exposure to a dangerous situation and I think Covid has helped stimulate that kind of thinking,” Boston Dynamics founder Marc Raibert told CNBC in June 2020.
Service Robots
The pandemic also helped normalize AI-powered service robots in public spaces, often with cute faces or humanoid form factors.
China-based Pudu Robotics expanded its footprint as restaurants and stores sought to reassure customers with contactless service.
Hanson Robotics, creators of the world-famous android Sophia, developed a humanoid robot named Grace specifically to interact with the elderly and isolated individuals during the pandemic.
Equipped with a thermal camera in its chest, Grace could check temperatures and measure patient responsiveness. The robot spoke multiple languages and could diagnose patients with its artificial intelligence.
“I can do all kinds of things for elderly people,” Grace told CBS News at the time. “I can visit with people and brighten their day with social stimulation, entertain them, and help guide exercise, and also do talk therapy, take bio readings, and help healthcare providers assess their health and deliver treatments.”
Robots like Mitra from India’s Invento Robotics, Cruzr by Shenzhen-based UBTECH , and Pepper by SoftBank were deployed to healthcare facilities to reduce interactions with staffers and sick patients, and to monitor compliance.
The usage led to improvements in natural language processing, facial recognition, and emotional detection, which are common features in contemporary humanoids. The deployments also helped robots learn to better navigate complex settings like hospitals and public spaces without human intervention.
Today, a growing number of companies are developing AI-driven social robots with human-like appearances as healthcare worker shortages are expected to worsen.
Industrial Automation
In 2021, a year into the pandemic, industrial robot installations hit record highs amid surging demand for products and labor shortages.
Nearly half a million robots were deployed in factories worldwide, a 27 percent increase from the previous year. Metals, food processing, consumer goods, and electronics manufacturing accounted for more than half of new robot orders.
Proctor & Gamble, for example, deployed robots to assembly lines to increase production output despite fewer staff.
Collaborative Robots
The pandemic facilitated the rise of collaborative robots, or cobots, which are flexible robotic arms designed to work alongside humans.
The cobots helped with everything from assembly tasks to nasal swab tests. In manufacturing, the cobots helped companies automate parts of their processes when fully custom automations weren’t feasible.
Robotics companies like Universal Robots reported increased interest from mid-sized firms looking to maintain operations with limited staff.
The pandemic led to what experts called an automation wave, where tasks previously thought to require humans are being re-examined.
Looking Ahead
Today, manufacturers across sectors are working toward fully automated smart factories.
Humanoid robots are starting to enter factories to handle tasks that can’t be easily automated with specialized machines.
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