Multi-Agent Robot System to Monitor and Enforce Physical Distancing Constraints in Large Areas to Combat COVID-19 and Future Pandemics

Abstract

Random outbreaks of infectious diseases in the past have left a persistent impact on societies. Currently, COVID-19 is spreading worldwide and consequently risking human lives. In this regard, maintaining physical distance has turned into an essential precautionary measure to curb the spread of the virus. In this paper, we propose an autonomous monitoring system that is able to enforce physical distancing rules in large areas round the clock without human intervention. We present a novel system to automatically detect groups of individuals who do not comply with physical distancing constraints, i.e., maintaining a distance of 1 m, by tracking them within large areas to re-identify them in case of repetitive non-compliance and enforcing physical distancing. We used a distributed network of multiple CCTV cameras mounted to the walls of buildings for the detection, tracking and re-identification of non-compliant groups. Furthermore, we used multiple self-docking autonomous robots with collision-free navigation to enforce physical distancing constraints by sending alert messages to those persons who are not adhering to physical distancing constraints. We conducted 28 experiments that included 15 participants in different scenarios to evaluate and highlight the performance and significance of the present system. The presented system is capable of re-identifying repetitive violations of physical distancing constraints by a non-compliant group, with high accuracy in terms of detection, tracking and localization through a set of coordinated CCTV cameras. Autonomous robots in the present system are capable of attending to non-compliant groups in multiple regions of a large area and encouraging them to comply with the constraints.

Smart Healthcare System for Severity Prediction and Critical Tasks Management of COVID-19 Patients in IoT-Fog Computing Environments

“…However, detecting the signs mentioned above will exhaust the network because the detected signs have no impact on the detection of COVID-19 infection. To prevent COVID-19 and future pandemics, the authors of [ 30 ] describe a cooperative multi-agent robot system (MARS) for strictly enforcing physical distancing restrictions in broad areas using human-robot interaction (HRI). The authors employed multiple self-docking autonomous robots with collision-free navigation to enforce physical distancing limitations by delivering alert signals to those who did not comply.…”

“…However, detecting the signs mentioned above will exhaust the network because the detected signs have no impact on the detection of COVID-19 infection. To prevent COVID-19 and future pandemics, the authors of [30] describe a cooperative multi-agent robot system (MARS) for strictly enforcing physical distancing restrictions in broad areas using human-robot interaction (HRI).…”

Multi-agent robotic system (MARS) for UAV-UGV path planning and automatic sensory data collection in cluttered environments

“…Nowadays, automation and robotic technologies have gained attention due to their potential to reduce the workforce and time required to complete inspection tasks. Automation and robotic technologies with advanced sensing devices were applied for detecting and monitoring occupancy [4], floor cleaning [5,6], fault detection and diagnosis [7], indoor air monitoring [8,9], facility inspection [3], and construction site data collection [10,11]. Early applications of robots focused on unmanned ground vehicles (UGV).…”

“…Both UAVs do not run into obstacles in the laboratory. In the 2D grid map, their flight paths are overlapped at coordinates (5, 7),(2,11),(2,13),(2,14),(2,15),(3,16),(4,17), and(5,18). However, these do not imply any collisions because UAV1 and UAV2 arrive on these positions at different time steps, as shown in the table of Fig.18 (b).…”

Autonomous Robots for Deep Mask-Wearing Detection in Educational Settings during Pandemics

“…Researchers and manufacturers constantly aim to develop systems that can aid in pandemic preventive measures, specifically robotics. With a total market share of 27 billion USD, the prominence of service robots at this day and age is unwavering [9], especially with estimations pointing towards the imminent integration of service robots in our daily lives [10]. Moreover, the pandemic has encouraged the development of systems designed to identify recurring violations relating to social distancing measures such as mask detection or the distance between two individuals.…”