Multi-Agent System Based Mobile Help Desk and Monitoring of Safety Measures to Combat COVID-19 and Future Pandemics

Abstract

The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic presents an unprecedented challenge for humanity. The historical data about the past pandemics indicates towards a high possibility of future pandemics. Moreover, current pandemic is expected to stay for longer time. In this situation, social robots hold a huge potential to assist in fighting against current and future pandemics by minimizing human-to-human interactions e.g., by providing digital help desk, and monitoring the compliance of people with required safety measures at public places. A huge number of robots are required to monitor large spaces like shopping malls, airports etc. Therefore, we present Multi-Agent System (MAS) to provide robot based mobile help desk and monitoring safety measure of wearing face mask, for large spaces in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Our proposed MAS is based on collaborative work of two agents: 1) CCTV Camera, and 2) Robot. Experimental results show efficiency and effectiveness of proposed MAS in navigation and control of robot based on visual information interpreted by CCTV camera to provide mobile help desk, and detecting face masks through robot by using state-of-the-art real-time computer vision algorithms in large spaces.