With Coronavirus gripping the nation and panic buying fuelling the mass sale of hand wash and toilet rolls to the public, the COVID-19 pandemic has sparked the sell-out of another item.

Amidst the frantic switch to work-from-home for many workers, robots are being used to shore up companies’ production as they struggle to keep up with increasing demand. Robot arms can be effectively used to perform a variety of simple repetitive tasks, freeing up staff to do more meaningful work.

At the forefront of this innovation is bots.co.uk, a company that specialises in providing a range of different cobot arms at a hourly rate of ÂŁ2.70 per hour paid monthly. This concept is really taking off when manufacturing needs to stay operational but the lock down is causing staffing issues. Once installed the robot can be remotely monitored to check the tasks performed and productivity.

Commenting on this soaring demand, Tim Warrington said: “We have totally run out of robots at the moment but we are due more in the next couple of weeks. Demand for robot hire has risen so fast that we just couldn’t keep up with it.” “food packaging industry as well as plastic moulding companies in the medical sector are the main sectors”

bots.co.uk specialises in robot co-workers, known as ‘cobots’, as well as autonomous industrial robots, and distributes a variety of flexible models to suit any task. The company also offers training for managers and employees, to allow for the smoother integration of cobots within their workforce.