Balancing the impact of City Infrastructure Engineering on Natural Systems using Robots

For the foreseeable future, the UK is at risk from COVID resurgence. Upon the relaxation of lockdown, public transport and transport hubs will become key hotspots where the virus has a significantly enhanced likelihood of transmission. Confidence in the cleanliness of our mass transport systems will be essential to reopening the country; without this, people will shun public transport and a large increase in private vehicle traffic will result, with corresponding impacts on carbon, particulate and nitrogen pollution. The UK will need to achieve unprecedented levels of cleanliness on its mass transport systems and the UK robotic community can provide novel technology to enable this. Some countries (e.g. Singapore) already use basic robotic technology to clean trains or to spray streets with disinfectant. Building on our world-class expertise in novel configurations of drones and ground vehicles, we will research and develop robotic systems such as autonomous drones with spray and manipulation capability to contact and disinfect structures. We have already demonstrated autonomous spraying robots and drones with manipulators as part of the international MBZIRC challenge in the UAE this year, and have demonstrated ground robots with wheels and legs equipped for firefighting. Time is critical; we need to adapt the technology urgently to reboot transport systems.