Robotics and Automation: The Rescuers of COVID Era

Chauhan, A.

Today, when whole world is fighting against novel coronavirus and some countries are struggling to control this pandemic, robotics and automation can play a significant role not only by saving people but can also aid in controlling and preventing the spread of the virus. These advanced technologies are not only being applied widely to pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing processes but are also helping the doctors and nurses in identifying and diagnosing the COVID patients. In the era of science and technology, people have realized the importance of robotics and automation and are using these technologies exclusively in field of education, grocery stores, restaurants and food delivery outlets etc. to maintain the norm of social distancing. Due to rapid increase in the number of epidemics and now this corona pandemic, demand for robotics and automation has increased manifold in healthcare, medical and pharmaceutical sectors due to shortage of medical staff and equipments and fear of spreading the disease from one person to another. Moreover, robots can also be used by the manufacturing industries to revive their production and to reduce the impact of present and future epidemic challenges. Although the use of robots and automation is not new, but people still have certain apprehensions of using these technologies on large scale. Some of the problems associated with robotics and automation are lack of funding, high initial cost, reduction in job, adaptability, lack of human interaction, regular updation, cyber virus threats etc. To deal with coronavirus robots and automation are being used in different forms and types such as telerobots for interaction and communication with patients, medical robots for disinfection purpose, drones and patrol robots for public safety, robot vans for delivering food and other essential items, 3D printing for manufacturing medical equipments etc. We cannot predict how long this coronavirus will last, but these cutting-edge technologies can be used for the revival of industrial production, and it’s high time for manufacturing industries to upgrade their production and assembly lines with automation tools and digital technologies for safe and continuous operations. These technologies can be used with aim to decrease the workload of existing workforce and not to replacing them. Existing robots can be repurposed to save time and money and there is no need for stockpile the robots which can make them outdated. It is very well known that resources cannot be developed in one day. It takes number of years to build them so that they can be used in case of emergency. So, it is high time that governments and agencies all over the world should come up with a proper plan to integrate robotic and automation with the existing workforce for the fight against the next pandemic and enhancing the efficiency. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.