2 research outputs found
The implementation of social robots during the COVID-19 pandemic
The present study examines the implementation of social robots in real
settings during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, we analyze the areas in
which social robots are being adopted, the roles and tasks being fulfilled, and
the robot models being implemented. For that, we traced back and analyzed 195
experiences with 66 different social robots worldwide that have been adopted
during the coronavirus outbreak. We identified a clear resurgence and expansion
of social robots during the crisis. The social robots' capacity to perform the
roles of liaison in tasks that require human-human interaction, to act as a
safeguard to ensure contagion risk-free environments, and to act as well-being
coaches by providing therapeutic and entertaining functions for quarantined
patients, which are directly associated with the needs of facilitating physical
distance and palliate the effects of isolation, have been key to the
renaissance of these robots during the pandemic.Comment: 10 pages, 0 figure