Table 4.
Digital Technologies and Industry 4.0 technique implemented in fighting COVID-19 across the world since 2020
| Digital Technologies |
Application during COVID-19 |
Major Area | Country | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Autonomous Robot | Autonomous Robot has numerous applications in the field of the manufacturing industry, hospitality industry (hotels), aviation, hospital, surveillance, border security and many more. Autonomous Robot ‘Tommy’ is used to care for COVID-19 patients | Hospitals/ healthcare services | Italy | [90] |
| Telemedicine | Hospitals/ healthcare centres located in remote areas could be easily accessed from well-equipped hospitals of metro areas and hence a better consulting and treatment can be provided to patients. RP-VITA made by iRobot: allows medical specialists to communicate remotely with patients | Hospitals/ healthcare services | USA, India, Bangladesh, and other countries | [90] |
| Drone | Police Patrolling | Cities, towns, rural areas | India, USA | [90] |
| Contact tracing apps | Helps to identify persons who may have been in contact with a COVID infected individual | All possible areas | Australia, Canada, Germany, France, UK, China, Japan, India, Bangladesh, and 50 + countries | [91] |
| Advanced Robotics | Fast medicine and equipment production and reduce human interaction leads to less virus transmission | Industries | Italy, Brazil, US, France, UK | [40] |
| Big Data | To store and analyze data | Hospitals/ healthcare services | South Korea, Taiwan | [92] |
| 3D printing | It is used in the manufacturing and fabrication of sophisticated components including aerospace, defence, automobile, home appliance and medical field. 3D Printing is also used to make ventilator parts, masks, respirators, and personal protective equipment (PPE), face shields, masks, nasal swabs, 3D-printed robot help to Perform throat swab testing with zero human contact | All medical fields | Australia, UK, USA, India, Denmark, Italy | [19] |
| Artificial Intelligence | Al does the task by training machines using BIG Data in areas of banking & finance, healthcare, agriculture, gaming, space Exploration, social media, Cybersecurity. etc. AI-based chest X-ray diagnosis technology is used for Rapid detection of suspected Covid-19 | Hospitals/ healthcare services | UK, India, USA | [25–27] |
| Virtual reality | Virtual reality is used in the study of Engineering, Medical and Architectural sciences. Using holography, the concept makes easier to understand and interestingly it could be carried out online as well as offline education. Virtual reality is used for rendering infected areas, healthcare professional training, real-time education for the student | Home, hospitals/ healthcare services | USA, South Korea | [93] |
| Biosensor | Biosensor helps extract and monitor different types of data of the human body thereby easy and early detection of various diseases without carrying out an expensive body checkup. Biosensors are used for fast COVID-19 diagnosis. Life signals biosensors wireless patch can help in continuous remote monitoring of COVID-19 patient/suspect | All medical fields | South Korea, Israel, Taiwan, India | [51, 86] |
| IoT |
Tracking, screening, Monitoring data |
Homes, public areas, hospitals/ healthcare services |
India, Spain, USA, South Korea |
[94] |
| Cloud computing | Cloud computing helps to store medical data on the cloud and give assistance in curing patient infected with various disease easily. During COVID-19, work from home environment could be easily created in various locations of the city as well as the town. Office collaboration within businesses, increase in remote education and training at educational institution levels |
Banking and finances, healthcare, manufacturing sectors, etc |
India, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong | [95] |
| Cybersecurity | Prevention from hacking and cyber-attack in name of COVID-19 | Defence, internal agencies, big organization | India, Israel | [89] |