Robots Ease Current Pandemic Woes, How?

This year’s annual Consumer Electronics Show was completely conducted virtually amid the deadly threat of coronavirus pandemic. The CES 2021 was held in a different style when compared with past experiences. But the change was not only in the format of how it was organized, but the tech displayed during the occasion was also different from the past experiences, as they have kept the public pandemic woes in mind while developing the latest tech products.

There was a very prominent shifting in various products prototypes that were being shown off by their developing firms, which has been based on a move towards the advancing tech that has been designed to help the general population in living, working and staying safe through the dreadful COVID-19 pandemic, which has directly affected every country around the world. Robotics is one of the categories which have been observed to have drastically shifted into a new direction to cope with the pandemic woes by the people due to the occurrence of unfortunate events in the past year.

This sudden by expected shifting for the direction of future of robotics is a part of a larger push by the electronics industry to address the needs and requirements of people that have emerged from the coronavirus pandemic woes and the reoccurring preventive lockdowns to limit further transmission of infection.

There have been numerous coronavirus pandemic woes, meaning that the spread of the deadly viral infection has caused distress for nearly every individual throughout the world, as all public places were shut down along with businesses and recreational events. Nationwide lockdowns were implemented which prevent people from leaving their homes except for emergencies.

Remote robot operations

In the last year’s Consumer Electronics Show, the French robotic firm Pollen Robotics launched a prototype for a humanoid robot named Reach, which has the firmware to interact with humans on a daily basis and provide object manipulation. During this year’s CES 2021, the robot was back with the addition of a new skill set, keeping in mind the COVID-19 pandemic woes by the public. It allows the robot to be compatible with an application for humanoid VR teleoperation.

The idea behind the technical changes would allow any individual to wear a VR headset, and by the use of simple hand controllers, the robot Reachy would easily be operated remotely. This would allow the humanoid robot to be easily operated from any place around the world, without fear of getting infected with the deadly infection and prevent pandemic woes.

The telepresence robotics is not a new concept, but the past year with the COVID-19 pandemic spread shows the various ways it can be utilized in our daily routine. Reachy is an open-source robot with the boundless possibility of its utilization, as it is able to go where humans are unable to travel right now amid the coronavirus pandemic and become an accessible proxy for people.

Robots for vaccine manufacturing

Shadow Robots, which is a United Kingdom-based robotics firm is one of the frequent exhibitors in the annually conducted CES has developed a product and were able to even secure investment from Innovate UK to explore if this recently developed Tactile Telerobot could be used for the manufacturing of coronavirus vaccines by Pharmaceutical firm Pfizer. This would be helpful to tackle the pandemic woes and an efficient work environment.

The firm is currently working in building for advancement in the hand robotics that would allow in mimicking a human hand in real-time and reduce pandemic woes. More required tasks are being check listed that require a high level of accuracy and dexterity to check the system for the proper working in a sterile environment for the manufacturing of easier, faster, better and cheaper vaccines.

The robot would be able to tasks that are usually done by humans, who have to perform the working by putting gloves in a sterile environment, which is called an insolator. The process is tricky work, and there are many chances for error. But the firm is hoping that the telepresence robots will provide the working humans room for more control over work and allow greater efficiency during the manufacturing process for the coronavirus vaccines.

The Shadow Robots usually sell their products to research institutes and professors and are happy to expand their expertise of the company in other realms and helping in limiting pandemic woes.

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