Previous research has shown that staying at least two metres apart from others can reduce the spread of Covid-19.
Technology-based methods – such as strategies using WiFi and Bluetooth – hold promise to help detect and discourage lapses in social distancing.
However, many such approaches require participation from individuals or existing infrastructure, so robots have emerged as a potential tool for addressing social distancing in crowds.
The new autonomous mobile robot does not require participation and is able to detect breaches and navigate to them using its own Red Green Blue-Depth (RGB-D) camera and 2D lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) sensor.
The robot is capable of detecting when people in a crowd are too close to each other
Image credit: SATHYAMOORTHY ET AL., 2021, PLOS ONE, CC-BY...