Amid the nationwide epidemic, "no one" has become popular again!

Automation has not yet brought about social isolation, but social isolation has promoted automation!

On January 27, the State Council issued a notice extending the Spring Festival holiday to February 2.

As early as the evening of January 26, Suzhou City issued a notice that, except for industries that are essential to citizens' lives (such as water supply, gas supply, electricity supply, communications, supermarkets, farmers' markets, etc.) and industries that are essential for epidemic prevention and control, other enterprises in the administrative area must not resume work and business before 24:00 on February 8. On January 28, Suzhou postponed this time to 24:00 on February 9.

Suzhou opened the door, and in the following days, 21 provinces including Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shandong, and Beijing issued notices to delay the resumption of work and business to minimize the flow of people. Wenzhou even issued the longest "delay order" in the country, extending the time node to February 17.

If Zhong Nanshan says no, then no!

Under the comprehensive epidemic prevention and control, most people are self-isolating at home. Except for the necessary materials and actions, the whole society has entered a low-power operation state.

The so-called low power consumption means the minimum flow of people, the least physical activities, and the reduction of social interactions. This kind of low-power social operation has also accelerated the implementation of a number of new technologies and new formats. In addition to using AI, big data and other scientific and technological means to research and develop vaccines and assist in prevention and control, it also provides new opportunities for traditional scenarios such as medical care, consumption, and office. From unmanned retail, contactless delivery, robot restaurants, remote office/education, to smart medical care...it is precisely the epitome of the highly automated society of the future.

In other words, this global movement to use technology to eliminate intermediaries in economic interactions is accelerating a “big bang” of automation.

Under the epidemic, "unmanned" has become popular again.
Human contact will be risky, will it be safer without human contact?

The rampant virus has driven people from offline to online, and online has become a concentrated sales touchpoint, prompting more operating companies to pay attention to the online applications of offline traffic.

Unmanned retail and express delivery lockers, which were once embraced and abandoned by capital, have more opportunities under the epidemic and may be reborn this year.

Taking Suning Vegetable Market as an example, relying on Suning Convenience Store, it focuses on the "online ordering, store pickup" model, achieving a balance between the richness of dishes and the convenience of pickup. For users who do not want to go to large supermarkets during special periods, it is a good alternative.

"Contactless delivery", especially "contactless delivery of the last mile", will also become a hot spot for investment in the food delivery and logistics industries in 2020. The most common form at present is the community express locker, which can reduce close contact between people and realize multi-scenario unmanned self-service food pickup, laundry, express delivery and other services.

In addition, food collection cabinets have also been re-examined by e-commerce and catering companies. On January 26, Meituan Waimai announced the emergency launch of "contactless delivery" with priority for pilot in Wuhan. As of January 28, Meituan Waimai's "contactless delivery" has covered 184 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

In the fight against the novel coronavirus, unmanned delivery robots and unmanned express delivery vehicles are not without a sense of presence. For example, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital has introduced two robots with integrated unmanned driving technology, which can realize functions such as autonomous door opening and closing, autonomous elevator riding, autonomous obstacle avoidance, and autonomous charging. They are responsible for delivering medicines, meals, and recycling bedding and medical waste in the hospital, reducing the risk of cross-infection among clinical staff; Hangzhou First People's Hospital has similar attempts. Robots carry meals or supplies from the virus clean area and automatically go to various isolation area rooms for delivery. They try to block the "human-to-human" novel coronavirus transmission chain through the robot's automated contactless delivery method and reduce the possibility of virus transmission within the isolation area.

The value of drones in epidemic prevention and control has been further explored. In the reporting of this epidemic, many media organizations including Xinhua News Agency and CCTV used drones for filming; drones also played an indispensable role in strengthening disinfection measures in various places. They loaded medicine, took off, and sprayed. Drones carried out special centralized spray disinfection operations in all directions over cities and villages without dead ends. When fully loaded, they can fly for 25 minutes at a time, with high efficiency and uniform spraying, completing disinfection and epidemic prevention work more thoroughly in a short time; in the publicity of epidemic prevention and control in many places, "drone + small speaker" has become a popular model, and various places have actively connected high-tech means to use drones to help epidemic prevention and control; in the construction of hospital sites, lighting drones came in handy. For example, to help Leishenshan work day and night, the 6 lighting drones donated by Zhejiang Geek Bridge Intelligent Equipment Company stayed at an altitude of 50 meters. Each drone can not only illuminate an area of ​​6,000 square meters, but also continuously illuminate for 10 hours, which is very helpful to speed up the construction progress at night.

The epidemic has also had a significant impact on China's manufacturing industry. Although US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has said that the epidemic will "help accelerate the return of manufacturing to the United States", it is not only cold-blooded but also absurd. However, it is undeniable that even if the epidemic is brought under control in the near future, due to the combined impact of factors such as personnel isolation, extended holidays, and traffic control, it will be difficult for the manufacturing industry to return to its previous level in the short term.

After this difficult time, many manufacturing companies will deeply realize that automated factories are a rigid demand and the automation transformation must be accelerated. Especially in the medical supplies-related industry, the demand is high in the short term, which is one of the scenarios of intelligent manufacturing. MIR Rui Industrial estimates that the demand for medical masks in 2020 will increase by at least 10 times compared with the market demand in the previous year.

National distribution map of medical masks and protective equipment companies

(Data source: MIR Databank)

During the epidemic, especially as many big-name catering companies are leaning towards takeout, "unmanned restaurants" have become more feasible.

A smart person will pick up something useful no matter where he falls.

Facts have proved that the "unmanned" business has potential. Previously, it may have been not optimistic due to the lack of mature technology and imperfect service system, which was far from consumer expectations. However, after the outbreak, consumers tend to ignore and tolerate some problems. This also indirectly shows that sometimes it is not that the scene is bad, but that the scene and consumer needs are not explored deeply enough, and the service system is not perfect enough.

After the test of this round of epidemic, many operating companies have been prompted to establish a protection system to deal with similar emergencies.

Digital technology enters the stage of large-scale application

In addition to "no one", the nationwide fight against the "new coronavirus" will also be a landmark event that pushes China's Internet into the digital technology era.

The dual demands will accelerate the commercialization of 5G and speed up the popularization of remote collaboration.

As a major public safety incident, this epidemic has brought about a massive flow of information. At the information service level, channels with larger capacity and faster speed are needed. At the same time, due to the virus's incubation period, schools have extended their opening hours and companies have postponed their resumption of work. The "remote" model has become popular during this special period. The demand for telemedicine, teleeducation and teleworking is strong and urgent, and 5G application scenarios have become clearer and more feasible.

According to the "Implementation Plan for Online Teaching in Primary and Secondary Schools in Wuhan during the Fight against the Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Epidemic", the Wuhan Municipal Education Bureau announced that it will conduct online education "online classrooms" where teachers will answer questions online and "will never delay students' learning". According to the Yangtze River Daily, it has been determined that online teaching will be organized for Wuhan senior high school graduates starting on February 1, and online teaching will be organized for other grades in Wuhan starting on February 10.

After the outbreak, iFlytek's AI+ office platform, iFlytek Tingjian, announced that it would provide remote office services such as remote video conferencing systems (L1/M1) and office assistant software to enterprises and individuals in need. "Smart voice outbound calls" provide basic prevention for primary medical care. Public welfare support for the first-level response areas, free assistance in the screening, prevention and control, and education of key populations of the new coronavirus pneumonia epidemic. Classes are suspended but not learning, and classes are delivered to your home. Free online intelligent live teaching systems are provided to primary and secondary schools in Hubei Province, and free smart online classrooms will be provided to some key schools in Shanghai.