Research on intelligent robot systems for emergency prevention and control of major pandemics

In recent years, SARS virus, MERS coronavirus, and other global pandemics have occurred frequently. The outbreak of COVID-19 has caused more than 3.7 million infected people and 260000 deaths over 210 countries around the world from December 2019 to May 7, 2020, which has seriously affected the safety of people, the stability of social order, and the development of the economy. Therefore, it is urgent to explore and implement new prevention and control programs for such major pandemics. With the development of robots and artificial intelligence technologies, various intelligent robots for emergency prevention and control in complex conditions have emerged, and they have played paramount roles in disease prevention and control, diagnosis, treatment, and nursing. Based on the problems of insufficient supply of materials and heavy disinfection tasks during the prevention and control of major outbreaks, we study the systematic procedures and applications of medical material handling robots, multi-scene disinfection robots, medical assistant robots, prevention and control robots, and production resumption robots. Moreover, we comparatively analyze the current situation of key technologies of pandemic emergency prevention and control robots, such as environmental perception, autonomous navigation, motion planning, and 5G communication technology. In conclusion, we put forward a technical prospect of intelligent robot systems for emergency prevention and control of major pandemics.