Robotics to revolutionize Industry 4.0
IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for humanity, recently concluded its virtual roundtable focused on how emerging technologies like Robotics & AI will be the driving force in India. With the post-pandemic scenario dawning upon us, IEEE curated a roundtable to discuss how these cutting-edge technologies are crucial for businesses, associations and societies to establish a strong foundation in these rapidly changing environments.
Jayakrishnan T, Senior IEEE member and CEO, Asimov Robotics shared his insights on the increasing adoption of robots and emphasized that they will play a pivotal role in Industry 4.0 revolution. Below are the key highlights of the roundtable.
Robotics to accelerate growth
The new world order has not only expedited the development of health-tech but has also influenced technology solutions across sectors. During the last decade, the evolution of robotic capabilities was exponential. According to the International Robotic Federation (IRF) report, India has moved up one position to now feature among the top 10 countries with the most annual installations of robots in industries.
With the accelerated pace of automation adoption, robotics will transform the world by the introduction of digital work force in combining the major game changers - Computer simulation, AR VR, Rapid prototyping, Collaborative robots, Big data analysis, AI, IOT, High speed internet and Cloud computing.
Robotics & automation in Healthcare
Tele-medicine is becoming increasingly important along with remote diagnosis, physicians are able to effectively utilize their time to be spent with multiple patients from multiple geographies. Medical logistics is another field where technology could assist, as the number of patients under critical care increases, there is a constant need of supply of medicine and other clinical consumables for patients under critical care. It is also imperative to minimize human movement between level-3 and above ICUs and other areas - in such cases emerging technology can assist.
Predictive diagnosis can be easily done with current advancement in AI-ML. It is now possible to identify the onset of problems much earlier so that physicians/surgeons get enough time to act upon. This not only saves life of patients but also improves the quality of treatment that prevents the damage of organs and their functionalities - as otherwise in the case of delayed diagnosis. Robotic surgery is one of the fast growing and highly promising applications of technology into medicine. Robotization allows the surgeons to perform highly complicated procedures with ease due to the increased dexterity coupled with advanced HD 3D vision and precise manoeuvrability. The system provides fully fledged real-time connectivity of the surgeon and the area under surgery in terms of Visual, Auditory, Tactile and Haptic means.
Robots are already being used in various hospitals across the country to support the health workers from getting infected inside the quarantine zone. They are very practical and capable of autonomously navigating inside the isolation ward to transport and dispense food and medical supplies for patients under care. These robots can engage the patients as well as initiate video conferencing between patients and the physician/ caregiver from a remote location. These robots can also have the added feature of being able to disinfect the used items and the premises using ultra-violet radiation and disinfectants like Sodium Hypochlorite or electrostatic spray.
Robotics has the ability to resolve healthcare challenges in the form of tele-medicine, medical logistics, predictive diagnostics, robotic surgery, amongst others. As the pandemic has influenced the direction of latest trends in all technology applications, it has become mandatory to maintain the new world order. The COVID-19 outbreak has taught the world a number of lessons, one of the important one is to use technological innovation in its full potential. While the usability, robustness, clinical integration and scaling up remain a challenge at large, it will take a concerted effort of scientists, engineers, and medical professionals to make this a reality. Having said that, the need for automation in all verticals needs to be explored as the pandemic has also reasserted the dire need to invest in new digital infrastructure, vital projects and innovation for a better tomorrow.
