From high-touch to high-tech: COVID-19 drives robotics adoption

Abstract

Global economic and social life has been severely challenged since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 disease a pandemic. Travel, tourism and hospitality, in particular, has been massively impacted by the lockdowns used to maintain social distance to manage the disease. Robotics, artificial intelligence, and human-robot interactions have gained an increased presence to help manage the spread of COVID-19 in hospitals, airports, transportation systems, recreation and scenic areas, hotels, restaurants, and communities in general. Humanoid robots, autonomous vehicles, drones, and other intelligent robots are used in many different ways to reduce human contact and the potential spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, including delivering materials, disinfecting and sterilizing public spaces, detecting or measuring body temperature, providing safety or security, and comforting and entertaining patients. While controversial in the past due to concerns over job losses and data privacy, the adoption of robotics and artificial intelligence in travel and tourism will likely continue after the COVID-19 pandemic becomes less serious. Tourism scholars should seize this opportunity to develop robotic applications that enhance tourist experiences, the protection of natural and cultural resources, citizen participation in tourism development decision making, and the emergence of new ‘high-touch’ employment opportunities for travel, tourism and hospitality workers.

摘要

在世界卫生组织宣布新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19）成为大流行病之后, 全球经济和社会生活受到了严峻挑战。为保持社交距离和控制疫情发展而实施的限制出行政策也对交通、旅游和接待业造成了巨大的影响。在这种情况下, 机器人技术、人工智能和人机交互得到了越来越多的关注。它们在帮助医院、机场、交通系统、景区、酒店、餐饮和社区抵抗新冠疫情的传播普遍发挥重要作用。管理者使用人形机器人、自动驾驶汽车、无人机和其他智能机器人, 通过多种途径来避免人与人的直接接触和降低潜在传染风险。这些措施包括运送物资、清洁消毒公共空间、测量或检测体温、提供安全保障、安抚并娱乐病患等。尽管曾由于担心会带来失业或者数据隐私问题而饱受争议, 但在新冠疫情减轻后, 机器人和人工智能仍将在交通和旅游业中继续发挥作用。旅游学者应该抓住这次新冠疫情带来的科技变革机会, 发掘机器人技术的潜力以增强旅游体验, 保护自然和文化资源, 并致力于为交通、旅游和接待从业人员提供”非接触式”就业机会。

Keywords:

• Robotics
• COVID-19 pandemic
• artificial Intelligence
• human-robot interaction
• drones
• high-tech
• high-touch

关键词:

• 机器人技术；新型冠状病毒疫情；人工智能；人机交互；无人机；高科技型；高接触型；

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China (41971173).