A survey carried out by Air Transport IT Insights recently found that almost half of global airlines and 32% of airports are currently looking for partners to further develop their robotic involvement in the next three years. The latest developments see robots staffing airport check-in desks, carrying out security protocols, cleaning and even delivering food to passengers. The airport security segment currently has the highest number of robots according to the Airport robots market – growth, trends, Covid-19 impact, and forecasts 2021-2026 report by Mordor Intelligence. The next most common use of airport robotics is for cleaning, which has seen a rise in demand due to the Covid-19 pandemic. PHL Food and Shops have introduced a new member to their team Philadelphia International Airport, Gita.

MIT has designed a robot that is capable of disinfecting the floor of a 4,000-square foot warehouse in only half an hour, and it could one day be used to clean your local grocery store or school. The university's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) worked with Ava Robotics -- a company that focuses on creating telepresence robots -- and the Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB) to develop a robot that uses a custom UV-C light to disinfect surfaces and neutralize aerosolized forms of the coronavirus. Development on this project began in early April, and one of the researchers said that it came in direct response to the pandemic. The results have been encouraging enough that the researchers say that autonomous UV disinfection could be done in other environments such as supermarkets, factories and restaurants. Covid-19 mainly spreads via airborne transmission, and it is capable of remaining on surfaces for several days.

Never has disinfecting and killing germs in businesses at home been more on the minds of people than it has during the coronavirus pandemic. For many years hospitals and other medical facilities have used UV light to kill germs and bacteria to keep people from getting sick. A new robot created by MIT's CSAIL is being used at the Greater Boston Food Bank to disinfects the warehouse using UV-C light. The creators of the robot say that it's able to disinfect the warehouse floor in half an hour. Similar robots could be used to grocery stores, schools, and other spaces to disinfect.