One of the highly robotized economies is the Japanese economy, and proof of this is the Pepper robot, which has been widely used in public institutions as well as in the educational area. The main objective is to interact with people by providing an information service, it should be noted that this has been developed long before the current world situation of the pandemic that we are experiencing because of the COVID-19. Next, we will know how versatile and effective has been the use of the robots during the pandemic, in order to contain the virus.
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Robot testing during the COVID-19
Due to the pandemic, Japan has taken a number of measures to be able to contain the increase in the number of people infected, including strengthening the capacity of developing countries for early warning, risk reduction, and risk management of national and global health risks, which corresponds to the Sustainable Development Goal. Due to the need to meet this objective and the scarcity of manpower in some sectors of work, many Japanese companies have been developing tests with robots in different tasks and increasingly advanced functions, many of these tasks in the area of public attention. For example, tests with robots have been carried out in the area of logistics, examination, and medical care, in the latter, they have been more than a replacement for medical personnel, since they have contributed to activities such as supplying medicines or even delivering food, and the most important thing is that they are not susceptible to contagion.
Use of a waiter robot during the COVID-19 pandemic
During this pandemic, the use of the Pepper robot is one more example that has demonstrated that robots are effective resources to win the fight against the coronavirus; the proof of this has been its use in the area of logistics and recognition. This popular robot model receives the customers of the Pepper Parlor cafeteria located in the District of Shibuya (Tokyo, Japan), and not only take their orders, but also measures their body temperature and reminds them to disinfect their hands and use their masks. A curious fact about this establishment is that it is one of the cafeterias in this area that is characterized by having almost all its staff formed by robots; for example, a model robot called Servi is responsible for taking customers’ orders to the tables, this robot is trained to avoid or dodge any fixed or mobile obstacle that may appear in its path.
Use of mail carrier robots during the COVID-19 pandemic
Analyzing the above we would be talking about the use of robots as a possible solution for work areas where there is a high level of exposure to COVID-19, such as a waiter, at this point we will talk about the work area that corresponds to the delivery of mail or send from one place to another of any type of product at a considerable distance between both points and in which direct contact between people can be avoided by using a robot.
We already talked a little about the characteristics of the Servi robot and its use at a restaurant level, however, it is known that the postal company Japan Post since last year began to develop a joint project with the Japanese company ZMP, which consists of the use of a robot designed to transport mails and packages moving on the sidewalk, and is capable of transporting loads weighing up to 35 kg and additionally, thanks to its cameras and sensors can make decisions automatically to stop if a pedestrian comes too close or decide whether to cross or not in a crosswalk.
Due to the pandemic, the Project had to be put to the test and this robot, known as DeliRo, is doing its job as a letter carrier moving packages from a post office to a hospital in Tokyo, this task is being developed at the moment covering a trajectory of approximately 700 m in an estimated time of 25 minutes. In this way, with the use of this robot, contact between the postal company employees and hospital staff has been minimized, significantly reducing the possibility of contagion by COVID-19. To learn about another of the technological projects that are definitely revolutionizing the world and that will help improve the quality of life of many people you can read our article entitled The Elon Musk tunnel for autonomous vehicles in Las Vegas.
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