Applying Robotics in Pandemics

J. Norberto Pires has a degree in Physics Engineering, a branch of Instrumentation and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering. He did postdoc in Automatic Control and was in several universities as a guest scientist. He is the author of several hundred scientific and technical papers published in prestigious journals and conferences. He has a regular presence in the media with opinion columns and radio programs. He was the President of the Portuguese Robotics Society, President the Portuguese Association for Automatic Control, member of the National Council of Science and Technology, member of the National Council of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, among other positions. He is currently Associate Professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Coimbra.

Robots have been part of our lives since the late 1970s. They are the result of several technological developments that have allowed us to perform some of the human tasks using machines. The invention that allowed the appearance of robots had happened in 1947 when three scientists from Bell’s laboratories in the USA invented the bipolar transistor. The industry prepared for the new technology, sensors, computers, automation appeared, the software was developed and, finally, robots appeared. The first customers were companies producing automobiles and consumer electronics — essentially, large companies around the world. Repetitive and dangerous tasks, such as welding, palletizing and manipulating, were the most popular in these early times.

The development of robotics in the 1980s allowed these tasks to be performed globally by robots. Having exhausted the market for large companies, robotics manufacturers began to pay attention to SMEs. The problem is that these companies, due to their specificity and ability to produce very different products, in small series and with many variants, pose great challenges and demanded a much more effective man-machine collaboration.

The times that followed, until the 2000s, were those of flexibility, agility, the ability to network and interfaces, which allowed robots to be true co-workers for humans.

The challenges of Industry 4.0, with the adoption of artificial intelligence, smart sensors, IoT, a new way of addressing the flow of information in companies, and the widespread adoption of resources in the cloud, have led to a type of robotics closer to the idea of a co-worker. Collaborative robots are an example of this.

As a plan to regain competitiveness, Industry 4.0 appeared to be producing its results. In fact, the plan created in 2015 to revolutionize the logistics chain (making it 100% digital, barrier-free, predictable, intelligent and global) was producing its results. The very advanced equipment, the effective solutions in the capacity to revolutionize the relationship between machines and humans, the adoption of technologies that allowed better information and greater control over the productive processes, showed an enormous potential to restore competitiveness to Western economies and the growth rates and added value lost with globalization.

The large investment of more than 40 billion euros a year, with the aim of making gains in German GDP of more than 500 billion in 2025, seemed to be well underway. However, a microscopic virus changed everything and forced to rethink. From one moment to another, it was necessary to produce remotely, that is, with machines and men at a distance. Despite all the sophistication and thinking of more machines, fewer people, a lot of AI, everything digital and a lot of human-machine cooperation, the scenario with production systems fully automatic and operated remotely was never faced. The pandemic required this and the alternative was to stop and rethink the strategy.

The pandemic will greatly change the idea of ​​robots and work. Society 5.0 will be a connected and digital society, with distributed and network-based services. There will be strong cooperation between men and machines, as envisaged with the Industry 4.0 plan. It will also be a relocated and remote society. Physical presence will not be decisive for the complete execution of any task, which is, in fact, a new challenge. The pandemic demanded that all this be solved in this way, opening a path that will be paradoxically more connected, more digital, more interactive and, at the same time, less in-person and based on remote services.

Robotics, as a way to automatically perform tasks associated with humans, will have a fundamental importance in this strategy. It is clear to me that the pandemic has accelerated developments in robotics — the appearance of more flexible machines, agile hands, totally remote and with increasing cognitive and autonomy capabilities.

The pandemic has changed the world and robotics will play an essential role. Post-Covid is the essential moment of robotics!