A team of robots zigzags through shelves in a pharmacy, busily picking up medicines. Not far away, humanoid nurses rush through wards taking temperatures, while a few floors below, a cooking machine prepares nutritious food for the patients. Long criticized as being a job-stealer and poor substitute for humans, robots have won newfound praise in the battle against the deadly COVID-19 as efficient and contagion-proof war heroes.

A robot disinfects the public area in a Fangcang hospital in Wuhan, Hubei province. (Photo/People’s Daily Online)

This sci-fi transformation is underway in many cities around China, as the government and tech giants find the most efficient and safe way to grapple with the outbreak while limiting contamination and spread of the virus, rolling out new robots to take on heroic roles in this deadly battle.

“Through these successful cases of high-tech companies fighting the epidemic, we have seen the benefit of applying ADP technologies to effectively solve the toughest problems in containing the virus,” said Zhao Xiaolei, head of UNIDO’s investment and technology promotion office in Shanghai.

The COVID-19 outbreak provided a silver lining for China, one of the world’s most influential tech innovators and a country that has long prioritized the development of robotics. According to International Data Corporation, a global provider of market intelligence, China will become the largest region for drones and robotics systems, with overall spending of $46.9 billion, while spending for robotics systems in China will see a five-year compound annual growth rate of 23.5 percent.

Robot heroes

Countless robots made by Chinese companies have been introduced to Wuhan, China’s COVID-19 epidemic center since February, providing services and care for people under quarantine or practicing social distancing.

A robot that can take care of the patients in a Fangcang hospital in Wuhan, Hubei province. (Photo/People’s Daily Online)

On February 27, Xiao Jia, a delivery robot created by the Artificial Intelligence Institute of Wuhan University, started working at the Leishenshan makeshift hospital in Wuhan. The robot can deliver medical equipment and analysis reports, and also bring hazardous and contaminated medical waste to designated positions.

“Our robot is equipped with a number of sensors and advanced algorithms, and can calculate and optimize its routes, avoiding obstacles on its way, as well as charge itself and work for at least 24 hours,” said Luo Bin, the robot’s designer. He further noted that the robot was protected by medical materials, allowing standard sterilization procedures to sufficiently clean it in a matter of minutes.

Robot nurses designed by CloudMinds tech company followed their lead and also joined the battle against COVID-19 in Wuhan in March. The company worked with Wuhan Wunchang Hospital and China Mobile to open a field hospital staffed by robots. Patients at the hospital wore smart bracelets and rings that synced with CloudMinds’ AI platform, allowing their temperature, heart rate and blood oxygen levels to be monitored. Some robots provided patients with food, drinks, medicine and information, while others sprayed disinfectant and cleaned floors.

In addition to robots that provide medical services, humanoids that can do housework are also used to improve the lives of patients and medical workers under quarantine. Two cooking robots, created by FXZ, a tech company based in Heilongjiang province, have been working in makeshift hospitals in Wuhan. The robots, which can store over 200 recipes, can cook for 1,200 people in an hour.

“Robot chefs are virus-proof. They don’t have to worry about catching the disease or giving it to others, and they can efficiently provide nutritious meals to our patients and medical staff,” said Li Hui, the company owner.

Wuhan is not the only city that has been using robots to tackle the pandemic. In Suzhou, a spray robot can disinfect an area of 40,000 square meters in an hour, while in Shenzhen, robots are being used in hospitals and public areas to provide consulting services, answering people’s questions regarding the virus.

Robots have also become part of ordinary households during the pandemic. Iflytek, a Chinese tech company that specialises in AI robots and automatic speech recognition, has developed a medical calling robot that can make 900 phone calls in one minute to notify citizens of urgent announcements. The usage of the company’s education robots has risen 226 percent year-on-year, while the usage of nursing robots has risen 10 percent.

Future development

The pandemic has provided China, the world’s largest producer of robotics, a trial ground to test its ambitions in the industry. China has been making robotics a priority in its future development plans for decades. According to the Promotion of New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan (2018-2020) published by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China aims to realize mass production and applications of public and home service robots by 2020.

According to Xinhua, due to its rapid development of big data, 5G and AI, China’s robotics industry is set to grow quickly after the pandemic. The service robot market in China is estimated to be valued at nearly 4 billion US dollars by 2021.

“Currently, our robots are mainly used to do easy and repetitive tasks. More research is needed to improve algorithms, automatic speech recognition and image recognition, so that the robots can perform more complicated missions, as well as become more intelligent,” Wang Chen, a robot engineer from Tsinghua University told Xinhua.