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 mateix temps, la COVID-19 ha accelerat la demanda de robòtica en la cadena de subministrament i les aplicacions sanitàries. Els proveïdors de robòtica van passar de citar l'escassetat de mà d'obra a la necessitat de distanciament social com a raó per adoptar l'automatització.
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.
Mentrestant, aquí teniu quatre maneres en què la indústria robòtica ha respost a la COVID-19.
COVID-19 Desinfecció i neteja
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.
A les Filipines, Robotic Activations es va disculpar després que una demostració del seu robot Keno va causar irritació ocular entre fins a 10 observadors. Els robots de desinfecció han de detectar quan hi ha humans a prop i tancar-los per seguretat.
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 Informe 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.
Altres sistemes dels proveïdors de robots de neteja es basen en aerosols, boires o una combinació de productes químics i UV-C. Aquests inclouen el CIRQ plus CLEAN de CIRQ plus , Nimbus de Life Sciences Holdings Inc. i el vehicle de desinfecció autònom de gran àrea 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.
Automatització de la cadena de subministrament
Several executives told Informe 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 necessitat de respondre a aquestes demandes ha generat expectatives de creixement de la robòtica per a aplicacions de recollida-i-, manipulació de materials i lliurament. Els venedors de robots mòbils, sistemes d'emmagatzematge i recuperació automatitzats i vehicles de lliurament d'última-milla a l'aire i a terra han estat optimistes.
Per exemple, insightSlice prediu que el mercat global de drons i robots de lliurament creixerà de 10.000 milions el 2019 a 38.000 milions el 2030. En una enquesta d'abril, Interactions LLC va trobar un augment de la comoditat dels consumidors amb robots per a la salut, la venda al detall i el lliurament.
"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."
Els sistemes estacionaris a les infraestructures de calefacció, ventilació i aire{0}}condicionat (HVAC) són una altra alternativa possible per als virus de l'aire.