The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has dominated 2020, affecting daily lives and every industry around the world. Early in the year, it aggravated a manufacturing slowdown that was the result of both expected economic cycles and trade tensions between China and the U.S.
Al mismo tiempo, COVID-19 ha acelerado la demanda de robótica en la cadena de suministro y aplicaciones de atención médica. Los proveedores de robótica pasaron de citar la escasez de mano de obra a la necesidad de distanciamiento social como justificación para adoptar la automatización.
Even as governments grapple with subsequent waves of infection, there are early signs of recovery in some regions and in the automotive sector. While nearly 5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered around the world at the time of writing this article, it's too soon to say when most businesses, schools, and travel venues will reopen.
Mientras tanto, aquí hay cuatro formas en que la industria robótica ha respondido a COVID-19.
COVID-19 Desinfección y limpieza
One of the most obvious applications for robotics in response to the pandemic is to disinfect hospital rooms and other spaces with ultraviolet radiation or chemical sprays. However, both developers and users should be aware of limitations. UV-C light is effective at killing pathogens in the air or on surfaces, but it can be hazardous to humans and degrade certain plastics. Radiation exposure is one reason why it is better to send in an autonomous or semi-autonomous mobile robot into an area to work.
En Filipinas, Robotic Activations se disculpó después de que una demostración de su robot Keno causara irritación en los ojos de hasta 10 observadores. Los robots de desinfección deben detectar cuando hay humanos cerca y apagarse por seguridad.
Simply putting UV lights on a mobile robot base is not enough to guarantee effective or safe disinfection of COVID-19, noted Claus Risager, co-founder and CEO of Blue Ocean Robotics, which spun out of UVD Robots. UVD recently won a contract to deploy 200 disinfection robots in European hospitals.
"So many people are trying to copy the UVD robots," he told El informe del robot. "It's unbelievable how fast that came. There's more to our product than putting light bulbs on a robot. We've done clinical design and long-term testing for all kinds of bacteria, fungi, and viruses, as well as time of exposure, angles, shadowing effects, and reflections."
It's also worth noting the companies that were developing UV-C robots before the COVID-19 crisis — UVD Robots and Xenex Disinfection Services — are among the market leaders, despite a host of imitators and research projects. UVD Robots' system is on its third generation and is available through partners worldwide.
At midyear, new disinfection robots were announced every week. Some came from established mobile robot providers, such as Lavender from Geekplus, the SmartGuardUV from Fetch Robotics, or the LD UVC from Omron and Techmetics Robotics.
Otros sistemas de proveedores de robots de limpieza se basan en aerosoles, neblinas o una combinación de productos químicos y UV-C. Estos incluyen CIRQ plus CLEAN de CIRQ plus, Nimbus de Life Sciences Holdings Inc. y el vehículo de desinfección autónomo de área grande de Pratt Miller Mobility.
Both types must address the time needed to properly disinfect a certain space, the "shadowing" effect depending on angles and occlusions, and the endurance needed to treat multiple rooms or large areas like an airport lounge. Like UV, some chemical disinfectants pose a risk to people.
Automatización de la cadena de suministro
Several executives told El informe del robot the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated an existing shift from brick-and-mortar retail to e-commerce, particularly for consumer packaged goods and groceries. Growth expected over the next three to five years occurred over the past six months, they said.
In the first few months of the year, supply chains were strained by the demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) such as face masks, and they are now gearing up for the distribution of potential vaccines. Hospital supply chains are subject to shifting demands like those in retail.
La necesidad de responder a tales demandas ha generado expectativas de crecimiento en la robótica para aplicaciones de selección-y-ubicación, manejo de materiales y entrega. Los proveedores de robots móviles, sistemas automatizados de almacenamiento y recuperación, y vehículos de entrega de última milla en el aire y en tierra se han mostrado optimistas.
Por ejemplo, insightSlice predice que el mercado global de drones y robots de entrega crecerá de 10 000 millones en 2019 a 38 000 millones en 2030. En una encuesta de abril, Interactions LLC encontró una mayor comodidad del consumidor con los robots para el cuidado de la salud, el comercio minorista y la entrega.
"Online grocery and general merchandise orders need robotics to keep up with demand, velocity, and quality," said Steve Hornyak, chief commercial officer at Fabric. "Then, to get products closer to customers and get to the one-day norm that Amazon has driven, you need micro-fulfillment centers rather than big warehouses at the edge of cities."
"UV robots are scary," said Faizan Sheikh, co-founder and CEO of Avidbots. "We are paying close attention to safety, and we're active in the IEC International Electrotechnical Commission for safety. Some sprays are safer for humans — sodium- or solvent-based, and we need to do analysis of this."
In addition, some companies, such as Perpetual Motion, are developing drones to disinfect large areas, and Clearpath Robotics is among those working to treat outdoor spaces. Exyn Technologies conducted a study that found aerial drones might not yet be a practical method of disinfection.
"The time and power required to ensure mission completion would not be an efficient solution to sanitize large areas at this time," said Exyn. "To be an effective solution for large areas, further advancement is needed in the underlying UV-C LED technology so that effective sanitization could be achieved on the order of seconds rather than minutes."
Los sistemas estacionarios dentro de la infraestructura de calefacción, ventilación y aire{0}}acondicionado (HVAC) son otra posible alternativa para los virus que se transmiten por el aire.