The use of robots can help minimize the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. With over 1,016,128 cases and 53,069 deaths confirmed as of the 3rd of April, the severity of this disease is enormous. Typically, the infection spreads through coughing or touching one’s face after coming into contact with contaminated surfaces. The best way to avoid getting infected is to avoid contact or close encounters with other people. This is where robots become very handy.

Robots remove the human element from a situation where interhuman contact is harmful. However, they need to replace many human functions, and as of yet, no robot is capable of fulfilling every role of a human counterpart. We therefore need many different robots with varying skillsets. Below is a list of 5 robots that together are helping us in the fight against the coronavirus.

1. UVD Disinfection Robot

UVD disinfection robot helps reduce hospital acquired infections

The UVD Robot is a human-sized, fully autonomous mobile robot that uses powerful ultraviolet light (UV-C), emitted in a 360° field of view from the robot’s central mast, to clean decontaminated surfaces.

The UVD Robot is used as part of the regular cleaning cycle and aims at preventing and reducing the spread of infectious diseases, viruses, bacteria, and other types of harmful organic microorganisms in the environment by breaking down their DNA-structure. By damaging their DNA and RNA, they can no longer multiply and therefor die quickly.

The robot can operate for up to 2.5 hours, enough to disinfect 10 rooms. It kills 99.99% of bacteria and is also very effective against viruses.

The best technology to fight the coronavirus

The UVD Robot has proven that it is able to kill MERS CoV and MHV-A59, two viruses very similar to SARS-CoV-2 (Coronavirus). According to UVD spokesperson Camilla Harkjær Frederiksen, the UVD Robot was able to show a 6-log reduction in viral particles within just 30 minutes.

Since February, UVD Robots have been deployed in all Chinese provinces to help fight the coronavirus. Sunay Healthcare Supply, a medical equipment supplier to the Chinese market said the following: “Before entering into the agreement with UVD Robots, we screened the market for the best technologies to fight the coronavirus. We found the UVD robot to be superior compared to other technologies. More than 2,000 hospitals now have the opportunity to ensure effective disinfection, protecting both their patients and staff.”

About UVD Robots

Hospital Acquired Infections are a significant and increasing problem in the global healthcare sector, where each year millions of patients are infected, and thousands of patients die due to infections acquired during hospitalization. Furthermore, the HAIs result in significant extra costs for hospitals, due to additional days spent in bed, readmissions and reduced operational efficiency.

UVD Robots is a Danish based company focused on the expansion of their business and has distribution set-up on a global scale. UVD Robots was founded in 2016 by Blue Ocean Robotics with the objective of commercializing robotic based UV Disinfection solutions for hospitals.

The incorporation of the company followed a Private Public Innovation project starting in 2014, where Blue Ocean Robotics and Odense University Hospital OUH, in partnership with other hospitals in Denmark, developed the first prototype of the UV-Disinfection Robot, with the objective of preventing Hospital Acquired Infections (HAI’s) for the benefit of patients, hospital staff and associated healthcare costs.

2. CloudMinds XR-1

CloudMinds XR-1 humanoid service robot

The CloudMinds XR-1, nicknamed “Ginger”, is a 5G humanoid service robot originally designed for work as a concierge, receptionist, business guide, or VIP service staff. It is capable of vision-controlled robotic movement such as opening doors, grabbing objects and threading a needle.

Ginger is one of the first ever humanoid service robot powered by cloud artificial intelligence. This is only possible by utilizing 5G’s ultra-low latency, and dramatically faster speeds. Being powered by the cloud means that Ginger’s brain is continually evolving, learning more and more things about the world, and becoming better at her tasks every day.

Reducing interhuman contact

Following the outbreak of Coronavirus in Wuhan and Shanghai, CloudMinds deployed more than 100 robots to hospitals, hotels and schools in the region. The main goal was to reduce human-to-human contact, while still being able to monitor patients. Without interhuman contact, simple tasks such as taking patients’ temperatures, delivering meals and cleaning, become very difficult. Luckily, Ginger is able to complete all these tasks with relative ease.

Getting the robots into the country was no easy task. First, they had to be flown to an airport in Changsha, then they were driven 373 miles to Wuhan, all while having to stop at multiple government checkpoints around the city.

The operation was a success! Ginger drastically helped reduce the amount of contact between medical staff and infected patients, while still completing necessary tasks. Bored patients that were stuck in quarantine, and therefore with very little contact to the outside world, also found that Ginger was able to give useful information and much needed interaction and entertainment.

About CloudMinds Technology Inc.

CloudMinds was founded in 2015 with the three elements of many successful start-ups: a bold vision, creative people, and encouraging financial support. ​

The CloudMinds vision is that by 2025, helpful humanoid robots will be affordable for the average household. The vision also includes creating a new kind of venture with the unique international character that earns and keeps the trust of people and markets everywhere. ​

CloudMind’s people are vital to making the vision come alive. The company founder is serial entrepreneur Bill Huang, who has a record of turning technology visions into reality. Bill has attracted the CloudMinds team, who are world-class scientists, engineers, business leaders and other professionals. CloudMinds has critical functions distributed across its primary locations in Silicon Valley, Tokyo, and Beijing. ​

Consistent with its international character, team, and locations, CloudMinds is supported by an internationally diverse set of investors, including, Foxconn, Keytone Ventures, SoftBank and Walden Venture Investments.

3. Zorabots James

Zorabots James helping the elderly during coronavirus lockdown (REUTERS/Yves Herman)

James is a humanoid robot developed by Belgian company ZoraBots. It is an autonomous mobile robot, that listens to voice-commands and reacts accordingly. James’ software has been designed to respond to the user’s voice, to move to specified locations, and to show information on the display. It can for example move to a location and say the current weather report.

Using lasers, James scans the room he is in, so he can generate a map of the area and navigate through it to points of interest. If the generated map needs to be adjusted, then there’s both an app and a website for that. This gives the owner the ability to add areas where James is not allowed to enter or to place James in the correct position on the map. James can also display the map on the built-in screen, so the user can follow the route that James will take to a POI.

Helping the elderly connect with family

To reduce the spread of the coronavirus, many governments around the world have banned people from visiting friends and family and even placing them on lockdown. This is especially true for the elderly, who are the most at risk. In Belgium, the government has banned all visitors to elderly care homes, to prevent the spread of coronavirus. However, this leaves many elderly people with limited or no contact to the outside world and their families.

To combat this growing problem, ZoraBots has lent a fleet of their James robots to elderly care homes throughout Belgium. Being an autonomously moving robot with a built-in display and an internet connection means that James is perfect at navigating up to the elderly and starting video calls with their families through Facebook Messenger.

Nele Vandewiele, director of residential care for the Ostend city government, said the robots likes James could help elderly residents who were missing contact with their family and loved ones.

ZoraBots initially lent 60 of its James robots, but with high demand, they could easily make hundreds more available.

“We said, in the coming weeks we will not be able to sell, the stock is just going to sit here. Instead of letting the stock sit here, why not put it to use in a good way?” ZoraBots co-CEO Tommy Deblieck told Reuters.

About ZoraBots

ZoraBots is a Belgian-based technology company specializing in new robotics solutions. With over 1000 robots already being adopted all over the world, ZoraBots has been unanimously acclaimed by professionals in health care and education. Its software has been recognized to be seamless and intuitive. The idea behind the solution is that people should not need any specific coding or programming skills to operate robots.

The “Zora” Solution allows people to control all the functions (gestures, movements, behaviors, data settings) of the robot. With two hours of training, user with zero programming skills are competent enough to operate the robot and make the best use of its functions. Most of the compositions can be controlled by just dragging and dropping the boxes on a timeline.

4. ZhenRobotics RoboPony

ZhenRobotics RoboPony delivery robot

The RoboPony is a yellow, six-wheeled, 68cm tall delivery robot manufactured by ZhenRobotics, an information tech and services company based in Beijing. RoboPony is mainly used in contactless last-mile delivery from convenience stores to users, high-end communities, hospital isolation areas, government parks, company parks and industrial parks, reducing interhuman contact infection.

The RoboPony can work for up to 12 hours on a single charge, travel at a speed of 8-10 km/h and climb up 35° slopes with ease. To ensure accurate delivery, ZhenRobotics also claims it has a positional accuracy of 1-3 cm.

The cabin, which can hold up to 30kgs of items, also has ultraviolet disinfection. This means that all the delivery items are free of germs when it arrives. Since ultraviolet light has been proven to kill MERS CoV and MHV-A59, two viruses very similar to Coronavirus, this feature makes the RoboPony very helpful in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Business is booming during coronavirus pandemic

During the coronavirus outbreak in China, the RoboPony has been used by Suning.com Group Ltd., one of China’s biggest retailers, to deliver food and other necessities to households.

The need for delivery robots like RoboPony soared after the Chinese government cut most access to cities with a total of 60 million people in late January. Hundreds of millions more in other areas were told to stay home whenever possible.

Unlike other industries that are struggling to survive in these uncertain economic times, ZhenRobotics say their orders have grown threefold since the outbreak began. In the next six weeks, the company plans to produce 90 more RoboPonys, just to keep up with demand.

About ZhenRobotics

ZhenRobotics was founded on July 6, 2016. It is dedicated to empowering industries with leading mobile robot technology, continuously improving people’s lives and leading human progress. ZhenRobotics describes itself as an AI company that develops precision navigation technology for robots, intelligent control technology, and environmental modeling technology. This technology helps identify pedestrians and dangerous objects, enabling robots to safely avoids obstacles.

ZhenRobotics has completed the development of the fifth generation of products and provides robotic solutions for the supplement of delivery men, cleaner and security staff to construct smart, sustainable and resilient Cities.

5. RoboKind robots4STEM

robots4STEM visual coding platform

The RoboKind robots4STEM is an avatar-based coding software where students learn visual programming through the use of a personalized avatar and Jett, an advanced, facially-expressive robot. It enables schools to have a comprehensive STEM course for grades 3-5 without a STEM-trained teacher. Teachers don’t even need to know how to code to teach programming and coding with robots4STEM. The curriculum includes the following topics:

Digital Citizenship

Algorithmic Thinking

Program Design and Flowcharting

Introduction to the Workspace

Programming the Avatar

Keyboard Events

Programming Motion

Introduction to Conditionals

More Advanced Conditionals

Counting Loops

Indefinite and Infinite Loops

All of these topics are taught in conjunction with the Jett, a facially expressive robot developed by RoboKind. Students first visualize their code in a 3D simulation, and then on Jett. This gives kids a physical object that they can interact with, instead of just being on a screen.

Helping with school closures due to coronavirus

On March 12th RoboKind announced that they would donate $500,000 worth of their robots4STEM coding platforms to US school districts affected by Coronavirus school closures.

All across the US, schools have closed to help reduce the spread of coronavirus. This has forced many students to stay at home and learn over the web.

“As we started hearing from districts that they would be closing schools and moving to virtual learning due to the virus outbreak, we immediately asked, ‘What can we do to help?’,” said Valorie Loomer, the RoboKind CEO and a former teacher/administrator. The goal is that this donation of robots4STEM software can help districts provide elementary and middle school students with computer science content during the school closure period.

The donation does not include Jett, the facially expressive robot that the coding software controls, however Richard Margolin, co-founder and CTO of RoboKind said “We still believe, and research shows, that the engagement with our coding curriculum is maximized when students can code with a purpose, code in real world environments through event-driven programming, and solve problems with real world robotic tasks, but students need to start somewhere.”

About RoboKind

RoboKind is the world leader in social robotics. They design and build a series of robots that enable people to engage with robots on a personal level, through the Robots4Autism and Robots4STEM programs.

RoboKind leverages these advanced social robots to supplement autism therapy, and STEM instruction. The programs use humanoid robots that feature life-like facial expressions, natural social interaction and comprehensive curriculum to assist educators and therapists in helping students learn and grow.