  This article analyses data collected on 338 instances of robots used
explicitly in response to COVID-19 from 24 Jan, 2020, to 23 Jan, 2021, in 48
countries. The analysis was guided by four overarching questions: 1) What were
robots used for in the COVID-19 response? 2) When were they used? 3) How did
different countries innovate? and 4) Did having a national policy on robotics
influence a country's innovation and insertion of robotics for COVID-19? The
findings indicate that robots were used for six different sociotechnical work
domains and 29 discrete use cases. When robots were used varied greatly on the
country; although many countries did report an increase at the beginning of
their first surge. To understand the findings of how innovation occurred, the
data was examined through the lens of the technology's maturity according to
NASA's Technical Readiness Assessment metrics. Through this lens, findings note
that existing robots were used for more than 78% of the instances; slightly
modified robots made up 10%; and truly novel robots or novel use cases
constituted 12% of the instances. The findings clearly indicate that countries
with a national robotics initiative were more likely to use robotics more often
and for broader purposes. Finally, the dataset and analysis produces a broad
set of implications that warrant further study and investigation. The results
from this analysis are expected to be of value to the robotics and robotics
policy community in preparing robots for rapid insertion into future disasters.

Robotics