Quadruped robot patrols sidewalks to urge social distancing

University of Hong Kong researchers are testing a mobile robot to patrol sidewalks, track clusters of pedestrians, and encourage social distancing. At this point though, I think this approach is more likely to attract crowds, not disperse them. From their technical paper:

We introduce a fully autonomous surveillance robot based on a quadruped platform that can promote social distancing in complex urban environments. Specifically, to achieve autonomy, we mount multiple cameras and a 3D LiDAR on the legged robot. The robot then uses an onboard real-time social distancing detection system to track nearby pedestrian groups. Next, the robot uses a crowd-aware navigation algorithm to move freely in highly dynamic scenarios. The robot finally uses a crowd aware routing algorithm to effectively promote social distancing by using human-friendly verbal cues to send suggestions to overcrowded pedestrians.

Autonomous Social Distancing in Urban Environments using a Quadruped Robot (via IEEE Spectrum)