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A rolling robot turns a corner and heads down an aisle stocked with salsa and taco shells. It comes up against a masked customer wearing shorts and sneakers; he's pushing a shopping cart carrying bread. The robot looks something like a tower speaker on top of an autonomous home vacuum cleaner--...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Technology review (1998) 2020-07, Vol.123 (4), p.64-69
Main Author: Hayasaki, Erika
Format: Magazinearticle
Language:English
Subjects:
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Customers
Disinfection & disinfectants
Electric appliances
Gloves
Hospitals
Intensive care
Medical supplies
Nurses
Nutmeg
Pandemics
Patients
Personal protective equipment
Robots
Search and rescue missions
Vacuum cleaners
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Summary:A rolling robot turns a corner and heads down an aisle stocked with salsa and taco shells. It comes up against a masked customer wearing shorts and sneakers; he's pushing a shopping cart carrying bread. The robot looks something like a tower speaker on top of an autonomous home vacuum cleaner--tall and thin, with orb-like screen eyes halfway up that shift left and right. Tally carries on taking stock of Ritz crackers, tuna fish cans, and nutmeg. Customers-some wearing gloves, a few choosing to shop maskless-are unfazed by its presence. What seemed a little strange to shoppers when Tally arrived a year ago is now, midpandemic, not even close to being the most unusual thing happening inside the store. Such machines are not just at grocery stores. Roboticists at Texas A&M University and the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue recently surveyed over 120 reports from around the world about how robots were being used during the covid-19 pandemic.
ISSN:1099-274X
2158-9186