Drones and COVID-19

Responsive Digital Infrastructure in times of a crises. How drones can help during a Covid-19 pandemic.

4IR, Drones and COVID-19 in a RECESSION

The Novel Corona Virus has literally brought the globe to a standstill. The impact of social distancing during this pandemic is so massive that its effects on carbon emissions are visible from space.

Three Overlapping Events: 4IR Digitisation, COVID-19 Pandemic, and impending Recession

COVID-19 also coincides during a latest wave of Digitalization, also known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution(4IR). It is expected to precipitate a pervasive Global Recession. This paper explores the role of technology and drones to assist society with the effects of social distancing and lockdown, and during periods of recession.

FOURTH INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION (4IR)

The promise of a responsive digital infrastructure.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), a concept that was introduced in 2015 in a paper to the WEF, is a way of describing the advances in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), 3D printing, genetic engineering, quantum computing, and other technologies, all of which are having a significant effects on society and form part of most government’s economic plans.

COVID-19

The global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first reported on 31 December 2019 by the World Health Organization country office following a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been confirmed as the causative virus of COVID-19. To date, COVID-19 has become a global pandemic and it is continuing to spread across the globe with social distancing and lockdown protocols being the main public health strategies to counter the spread.

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses which may cause respiratory infections ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).The most recent Coronavirus disease is COVID-19.

Accelerated digitization.

Here to stay. It is often said: “Necessity is the Mother of Invention” and the impact of social distancing on Digitilisation is evidence of this.

In the times of ‘touch-me-not’ conditions, drones, and other digital technologies, are man’s new best friends. Video conferencing, teleworking, tele-education, telehealth are among the many technologies being deployed to overcome social distancing during periods of lockdown, and of which many are expected to persist afterwards.

Post COVID future

In a report on ‘The digital-led recovery from COVID-19’ Mckinsey (March 2020) claims that: ‘A digital future lies ahead’.
The rapid spread of the coronavirus COVID-19 has played a vital role in accelerating the adoption of the use of drones in a growing list of unconventional tasks, which highlighted ways on how drones can speed up the fight against coronavirus disease COVID-19 and strengthen the enforcement of the stay at home campaign. Covid already has had a permanent effect on for habits.

“Drones will be an essential part of the daily lives of humans and will be as vital as phones are to everyone today.”

New normal

The COVID-19 crisis seemingly provides a sudden glimpse into a future world, one in which digital has become central to every interaction. As a result, forcing both organizations and individuals further up the adoption curve almost overnight. (McKinsey, 2020)

A world in which digital channels become the primary (and, in some cases, sole) customer-engagement model, and automated processes become a primary driver of productivity—and the basis of flexible, transparent, and stable supply chains. A world in which agile ways of working are a prerequisite to meeting seemingly daily changes to customer behavior. (McKinsey, 2020)

In some countries, like Malaysia, this push for digitization in amid coronavirus crises is a conscious one. As a result, this prioritization of digital technologies is ensuring they achieve a necessary critical mass while also changing consumer behavior. Therefore the novel coronavirus is likely to accelerate 4IR.

RECESSION

The recession that is a natural consequence of the corona virus pandemic is already illustrated by a slew of growth reports and projections: Global contraction of -3% (from a growth projection of 3%); USA growth of -6%, China’s economic growth is the lowest in decades at 1.2% and a UK contraction of -35% in Q3.

“And the price of crude oil has just dropped to below $0 per barrel!!”

THE ROLE OF DRONES DURING A DISASTER LIKE COVID-19.

As we face down new challenges, we’ve always enjoyed a burst of new technologies, often surprising ones, to help make things better. Similarly techies are finding ways for both drones and robots to help slow the spread of COVID-19 infections. As everyone looks for ways to do what they can to help, here are some examples of how drones and robots have come into play. 

PERVASIVE USE OF DRONES

Below are a list of how drones are put to use during COVID-19. These stories are a signal that drones are likely to become a common tool across the healthcare industry as well.

List of uses

• Some countries seeking to enforce a coronavirus lockdown have considered the use of drones manned with loudspeakers and cameras to assist law enforcement officials impose the lockdown
• A police department in California plans to use two large drones for these purposes.
• Westport (Connecticut, USA) police in a Flatten the Curve Pilot Program are going to be testing a ‘pandemic drone’ (made by Draganfly) that can monitor people’s temperatures from 190 feet away and detect sneezing, coughing and heart and breathing rates amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

More uses

• In Nice, France, police drones ordered people along the seafront to remain indoors.
• to walk dog in Cyprus
• Get a date in Brooklyn
• delivers toilet paper in Florida
• Deliver car keys in China
• Do crowd control in public places in the Netherlands
• See if the citizens are enforcing the curfew and to control the citizens in Malaysia
• Inform people to stay at home outbreak in Spain, using megaphones to give warnings to people

Transport medical goods transport in China:

• The medical drone flew from the People’s Hospital of Xinchang County to the disease control center of Xinchang County.
• This was the launch of the first ever urban air transportation channel used for the fight against COVID-19.

More countries

• Countries using drone for public control in: Wales,Western Australia, China, Spain, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, Italy, and the U.K. Paris.
• Or for spraying disinfectant: France, Chennai, India, and Surabaya, Indonesia, in crowded cities.
• Crowd control in Limpopo. South Africa.
• In Zanzibar, Tanzania, spraying drones are being deployed to fight Malaria.

Separately, drones are delivering critical medical supplies or lab samples in areas without the proper infrastructure.

Dubai

Police officers in Dubai famously patrol in Bugattis, Porsches, and Lamborghinis. In addition, since early in 2021 they also have a large fleet of drones with high resolution cameras with infrared and night vision capabilities as well as speakers. They monitor for COVID-19 safety parameters, traffic, drug trafficking, investigate crime scenes, pursue suspects and inspect heavy trucks. Offenders with violations are cited with the collected data.

Of the 4,400 violations captured by drone technology in the first quarter of 2021, 518 incidents were of people failing to meet COVID-19 safety regulations, In some cases smaller violations like jaywalking and failures to wear a mask, the police simply deliver a warning to the violator through the drone’s speaker.

also ROBOTS

Not only drones, but robots are also keeping humans safe while fighting the spread of the new coronavirus.

Back in January, America’s first known case of COVID-19 was “treated largely by a robot,”. The stethoscope-equipped robot helped take the vital signs of a man in his 30s

Other examples

• And at Circolo Hospital in Varese, a hard-hit city in northern Italy, they are reusing six “robots nurses,” 
  • It’s like having another nurse but without problems related to infection. For example:
    • Conserve face masks
    • Monitor equipment in the room
    • Not ever needing to sleep.
• In Tunisia you must show your “papers” to patrolling robots during their COVID-19 lockdown!
• A robot in China that not only delivers meals, but also takes patients’ temperatures, gathers bedsheets, and even disinfects the facility.

“Robots have the potential to be deployed for disinfection, delivering medications and food, measuring vital signs, and assisting border controls,”

wrote an international group of robotic experts inan editorial in the journal Science Robotics.

Thermal

• Thermal sensors with automated cameras and vision algorithms networked with security systems use facial-recognition capabilities “to retrace contacts of infected individuals” and alert them of possible infections.
• Malaysia also deploys a Medibot (at about $3,5000 ea) to deal with COVID-19.

The pandemic will increase interest in the use of robots to battle infectious disease.

“Historically, robots have been developed to take on dull, dirty, and dangerous jobs.”

KEY WAYS DRONES contribute during Covid-19

As we have seen in search and rescue missions across the globe – navigating devastated areas destroyed by Hurricanes – drones have become powerful tools to visualize expansive areas and communicate in complicated areas. Drones, like robots, are naturally effective at minimizing human interactions.

These include:

• communications,
• remote actions,
• deliver,
• observe/sense (monitor),

Drone technology is ready to break out into a mass service and reduce person-to-person contact. There are a few dozen pilot programs throughout the United States. This raises the question: how can the use of drones be scaled up?

I. Inspection and Broadcast

Drone capabilities are critical to oversee and communicate in dense, urban areas during the panic around COVID-19. With drones, officers can more efficiently scan an area and broadcast a message. (eg: ‘put on your mask or remain inside if the area is infected’). This also keeps officials away from close contact with potentially infected people.

II. Delivery of Critical Supplies

Everyone’s staying at home now. That’s the ideal time for robots to be making deliveries in a contactless way. It is easy to modify most drones with a payload drop mechanism to deliver packages up to 6 KGs. Because it is without risk to both parties, it is particularly important in areas where the presence of the virus is confirmed. Such as hospitals actively treating the virus.

Seeing the risk of a pandemic, local governments have often encouraged citizens to limit their exposure and remain in their homes. Which has put strain on package and food delivery systems, which are themselves a potential vector of contamination.

Drone package deliveries aren’t at full scale yet:

• A few prior global tests have been conducted in the US and the Dominican Republic 
• They have proven to be an efficient and contactless way to hand off critical medical supplies.

Examples

“Medical delivery drones” in China:

• fly quarantine supplies and medical samples,
• This urban-air transportation channel significantly reduces contact between samples and personnel,
• Drones improve delivery speed – more than 50% faster than ground delivery.
• decreased delivery time by over 50 percent as compared with road transportation,
• took humans out of the process to decrease COVID-19’s rate of spreading.
• brought COVID-19 testing samples to laboratories, which helped the quick diagnosis and quarantining of infected citizens.

Couriers

• Safely transport medical supplies into hospitals with COVID-19 patients.
• These areas would be dangerous to the average courier. Drones make these tasks safer because it avoids couriers contracting the disease. And then going on to infect even more people.
• Zipline already made 60,000 medical deliveries via drone in both Ghana and Rwanda since 2019. In addition, it is now seeking FDA approval to speed up its launch in the U.S. and are expanding to India.
• A major Chinese logistics company made thousands of flights to deliver 11 tons of medical supplies and parcels to areas stricken by COVID-19.

DRONE-BASED DISTRIBUTION NETWORKS

Creating drone highways can allow medical and parcel deliveries almost immediately.,

Medical parcel and grocery delivery:

Those who are at a heightened risk to COVID-19 stand to benefit more from drone services. They already avoid highly trafficked areas to deter potential infection.

Public Transportation

Residents of cities that rely on public transportation end up having very limited access to essential services. This includes grocery stores. Drones would effectively expand the number of options for grocery stores and other services in these cities. Which would help with supply issues and maintaining social distancing.

Remote Areas

Drones assists in remote areas where grocery stores and other key services are not restocked as quickly.

Direct to home

In rural communities drone deliveries skip the central distribution centres, such as a grocery store. This results in deliveries made much quicker as they can get made directly to the homes.

Medical applications

• Dedensification of medical care.
  • Drones reduce human involvement in the supply chain (a vector for infection).
  • Reducing hospital overcrowding by making it more practical for non-urgent patients to receive care in local clinics closer to home.
• Zipline’s existing role is delivering blood products and medication.
  • This role is now extended to provide a centralized distribution network for COVID-19 supplies in Ghana and Rwanda.
• Drones meet the demand across the entire healthcare network. Drones now deliver PPE on demand.
• Neighborhood drop-off points or home delivery
• Medical trial in North Carolina – with distribution area of 6,400km² servicing about 10million people with a drone with a range of about 80kms outbound leg.

These technology based solutions are here:

It is possible to roll this solution out to the entire USA in a time frame of 18 months!

III. Disinfecting Common Areas

• Drones can be a game-changer in fighting coronavirus. By spraying disinfectants in hospitals and public places like railway stations & bus stands where traffic is high.

IV. Sentinel Surveillance

• Temperature checking is proving very effective. It does have one risk point – the personnel conducting the temperature checks. As they measure each person with a handheld infrared thermometer. They may come into close contact with the virus and become a spreader themselves.
• To limit this one risk point, some teams are using drones equipped with infrared cameras to test temperature measurements.

TECHNOLOGY and A RECESSION

Recessions lead to a many knee-jerk cost cutting reactions, with investments in innovative technologies frequently seen as ‘nice-to-have’ expenditures. Investing in technology is often one of the few ways to create more value more efficiently. Technology investments have a positive relationship with economic growth, as it leads to higher productivity, or greater output of respective countries.

The figure shows the positive correlation of countries with higher levels of Innovation and higher levels of GDP.
The imminent economic downturn will require companies to find meaningful ways to prepare for and weather a decline. One way to prepare a business for a recession – is to continue to invest in technology internal efficiencies, effectiveness and customer focus. Companies that invest strategically in the right technology and service offerings are more likely to come out ahead after the market bounces back.

How technology benefits during an economic squeeze:

• Digital technologies do help to improve Return on Assets (ROA).
• They do this by finding better ways to ‘sweat your assets’, be it mines, pipelines or any other capital assets.

Early movers

Experience shows that companies that move early and decisively in a crisis do best.
The disruptions of the coronavirus have underscored the crucial role of technology. From supporting remote working to scaling digital channels for surging customers.
We have not seen the end of the crisis. CEOs who can best prepare their businesses effectively for a more digital future will give their companies the best chance for a brighter future.

DRONES for SEARCH and RESCUE

Search and Rescue operations show that a UAV performs a wide range of functions at a Point Of Interest/need (POI). As it will in the responses to COVID-19.

The UAV options for Search and Rescue can broadly categorised into 3 options:

Read more about drones in Transport and Delivery here..