COVID-19: Catalyst for '5G in Robotics'

“What’s next?”

"Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change." – Stephen Hawking

Today, we live in an era of radical reinvention, where the avenues for emerging technologies have never been more rampant. Never have we as humans, ever been forced to adapt and evolve at such an exemplary pace. As the pandemic continues to keep us sheltered indoors, we have transformed our homes to be all things necessary – office, gym, classroom, café/restaurant, recreation centre and in some cases – even meditation and rehabilitation pods. The virus that has roved around the globe hasn’t been a pause. On the contrary, it has been an accelerator.

Have you ever wondered how soon a drive-thru supermarket could become a reality? When could robots deliver products to our own human-free space to feel, touch, try and buy goods? When a wearable could detect asymptomatic viral strains in our body? How AI-fuelled worker bots could protect us from public virus carriers and help maintain social distancing? How medical bots could scan our body health and nutrition-levels and weigh-in with tweaks, while addressing the rising imperative of cognitive and mental health. How cameras and sensors in our homes can run scans for viral spreads, and then sanitise our surroundings to optimise our wellness.

In this article, I discuss how the pandemic has been a catalyst for the design and deployment of Field and Service Robots (FSRs) or simply 'robots', that address some aspects of the use cases mentioned above. This catalyst stems from the need to contain the virus by reducing human-to-human contact, sanitising our environments, and curing those who have been affected by the malicious bug. 

5G plays a critical role in enabling this rapid pace of evolution of robots, by solving key challenges they face today.

The role of 5G in robotics

One of the key challenges with robotics today, is maintaining reliable connectivity, which usually needs to be mobile with a high QoS. 4G wireless networks can be expensive and latency can be high, limiting the robot’s ability to react quickly. Density can also be problematic with 4G, as it could have trouble handling many robots, in the same footprint.

5G supports a much higher density of connected devices (up to 1 million per sq. km), so robots and RPA systems can scale out effectively. 5G also inherently supports flexible, distributed, and cloud-centric networking. 

The 5G Network Sliced-Edge Architecture reference model below, illustrates how slicing can allocate network performance to different tasks (or use cases) based on their priority, and can enhance reliability for top-priority tasks with ultra-reliable low latency communications (urLLC) at the Edge. This is what robots need to evolve.

For safety-critical applications, 5G enables telecom operators to guarantee near-real-time responsiveness (low-latency <1ms) and provides six nines reliability rate, which means an expected downtime of just five minutes per year. 

From a business standpoint, Robotics is expected to make up a sizeable fraction of the enterprise IoT market, which in turn is predicted to be one of 5G’s major beneficiaries. As I mentioned in my previous article, Racing to the “Edge” with 5G enabled IoT, Grand View Research estimates a global 5G IoT (again, not just for robotics) value of $28.84B by 2025, up from $1.47B in 2018. This represents a CAGR of 54.0%. The market for private 5G networks – many of which will be used to connect robots – will increase exponentially. Research and Markets, reports that the 5G enabled Autonomous Robotic industry value will cross $73B by 2030.

The use of 5G with Edge Computing, can solve many challenges that limit robot’s practicality today, making them more useful and more attractive to enterprises.

Robots fighting the pandemic

In this section, I shall discuss how robots are helping us fight the pandemic, in five areas including – robotising human-to-human contact for protection and safety, using autonomous devices for goods delivery and transport, providing medical care for COVID-19 patients, using biometrics with thermal diagnostics in public areas to contain the virus, and maintaining safe and healthy homes.

Human-to-human Contact Robotization

There are two distinct use cases today, where Smart Epidemic Prevention and Control or SEPC Robots, are replacing human-to-human contact, to contain the spread of COVID-19. These are for the frontline workers, and key examples are listed below:

• For Frontline Staffers’— The Misty II robot from Sphero, combines engaging human-machine interactions with applications to serve corporate health-screening needs. This robot screens employees and visitors and reduces exposure to infection while providing a positive user experience to reinforce a strong people culture and customer-centric brand. With 5G the camera vision precision, leveraging advanced deep learning (object identification apps) improves radically.
• For Frontline Healthcare Workers – There are a couple of good examples here: (a) Cheetah Mobile Inc. and service robot firm Beijing Orion Star Technology Co. has deployed the SEPC Robot in more than 30 hospitals, transportation centres, and shopping malls in Wuhan, the epicentre of the pandemic. The GreetBot, guides the way for patients, does remote ward rounds, and pre-diagnoses fevers. The ThermoBot, conducts no-contact temperature measurement, and has a mask detection and alert system. With 5G dynamic telepresence can be provided with safe communication; (b) The Moxi Worker SEPC Robot, with a light-duty industrial arm manufactured by Diligent.27, is connected to the hospital network and patients’ EHRs, and executes simple tasks such as dropping off specimens or placing an admission bucket of fresh supplies for a new patient in cleaned rooms. With 5G Moxi can conduct robotic surgeries and administer ventillators.

Autonomous Delivery 

The pandemic has prioritised Delivery Robots over driverless cars! Here are some notable examples:

• Nuro makes autonomous deliveries while limiting human contact for safety. Since the pandemic, this has since triggered a 3x jump in demand for the company’s automated delivery services from partners like Krogers and food banks, and Nuro is now preparing to work with Walmart and Domino's pizza. Geospatial precision improves several folds with 5G Edge AI chips installed.
• Alphabet’s Waymo, the farthest along towards commercialising Robotaxi(s), is placing new emphasis on its Via automated logistics business as delivery and trucking services.

• Amazon announced on July.21 this year, that Amazon Scout — a fully electric delivery system designed to safely get packages to customers using autonomous delivery devices, will start delivering packages in Atlanta this month. The robots are about the size of a cooler, and are designed to navigate around pets, people and other objects as it makes its delivery.
• Amazon’s Robotaxi start-up Zoox, recently bought for about $1.2 billion, is leveraging its self-driving software for package delivery operations. 5G will introduce see-through sensing and virtual presence.

Telemedicine 

Today, Companion Robots are functioning as health coaches during the pandemic, working alongside frontline healthcare workers. With 5G these robots can provide real-time detection of hospital infection patterns and improved advice to doctors. Some examples are:

• Softbank Robotics’ NAO robot functions as a health coach for COVID-19 patients.
• In Armenia, Expper Technologies is on the frontlines of paediatric mental illness with its new mechanical buddy, Robin – helping children deal with the pandemic.

• The Pepper humanoid service robot inspires trust in COVID-19 patients.
• In Thailand, Chulalongkorn University re-purposed “ninja” robots, originally designed to monitor stroke patients, to measure patients’ fevers and help doctors communicate with them remotely.

Advanced Biometrics

SEPC Robots are using facial recognition to scan public travellers with COVID-19 symptoms to enforce quarantine. With 5G, object detection for security can be combined with high-speed analytics and AR layered streaming. Some examples of biometric and body temperature screening technologies are:

• NEC wearable maker Whoop and Clear are leveraging facial biometrics in a supporting role to help the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) use touch-less processes for a safe return to play. 

• CyberLink has partnered with EcoSmart parking company Municipal Parking Services (MPS) in Minnesota, to equip touch-less Sentry Health Kiosks with its edge-based biometric facial recognition SDK, FaceMe to verify identity and protect users’ health and safety.
• SafePass IDS has launched a device that provides body temperature detection and facial recognition, transmitting data to an app for socially distanced monitoring.

Future in Smart Homes

Technology such as UV-C radiation breaks down the airborne pathogens’ DNA and RNA beyond recovery, thus stopping them from replicating. As the coronavirus can live on inanimate objects, sanitising local environments with pathogen-sensing UV Disinfection or UVD Robots is an effective, less labour-intensive, and long-term solution to ensure premises are safe and germ-free. Here are some key examples: 

• The OMRON LD-UVC UVD robot can navigate autonomously and disinfect premises including high-touch areas by eliminating 99.90% of bacteria and viruses — both airborne and droplet — by delivering the precise dosage of UV-C radiations.
• SFO-based Freedom Robotics released Freedom Pilot, a remote teleoperation tool, with the Freedom Resource Monitor tool to disinfect local environments with UV-C radiations.
• Fetch Robotics Inc. has partnered with Piedmont National Corp. to launch the Smart Guard UVC system as well.

Here are three related topics for you to read – 

• IoMT at the Edge – Role of Telecoms in flattening the curve
• Unlocking 5 Deep Learning AI apps with Quantum Computing
• The "X"aaS-factor in Cloud Native Architecture for Telecom digitalisation

Looking ahead

As the fight against COVID-19 continues, robots will become an increasingly essential support for us to survive this pandemic and prepare ourselves for all future biological calamities in the years to come. The 5G autonomous robot is an innovative case where cutting-edge technologies are being applied to overcome the crisis caused by the virus. To achieve true robotic advancements, 5G will require enormous levels of innovation in every aspect of the network, ranging from the development of mm-wave communications systems to cloud native architectures, and new wireless access methods that make it possible for many robots to operate in a small areas, without interfering with each other. Most importantly, researchers will need to find ways to reduce latency to virtual insignificance. Our survival and domination against this virus will serve as a great example for our future generations.

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– Ashish Kar

Author is a Chief Architect @PCCW Solutions, with 24+ years in the ICT industry and an innovation gameplanning coach. He has built a Silicon Valley innovation lab and designed several AI-driven solutions for telecom and retail organisations. He can be reached on email at [email protected].