EXCLUSIVE: The robot can carry out sanitation works while the operator controls it from another city hundreds of miles away using China's huge 5G network<br />A Chinese tech company has deployed an army of 5G-controlled robots to help battle the coronavirus outbreak in China – and their human operators don't even have to be in the same city.<br /><br />The flu-like disease has so far infected 80,430 people, with more than 3,000 people dying since the disease broke out in Wuhan, central China.<br /><br />AgileX Robotics, a Guangdong-based tech company, has now invented a mini-rover – equipped with cameras and rotating nozzles to spray disinfectant on the streets – as an innovative approach to reduce cross infections among the public.<br /><br />The anti-bacterial robots can be controlled by phones more than 2,000 kilometres away using the country's huge 5G network – the largest of its kind.<br />Brandy, a marketing manager at AgileX Robotics who did not want to provide her last name, told Daily Star Online: "As long as there's 5G network covered, I can control the robot in Beijing while I am here in Shenzhen (roughly 1,367 miles away).<br /><br />"This is a step of achievement to show how boundless it can be."<br /><br />So far, the robots have been deployed in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.<br /><br />In a video of the robot in action in Shenzhen, the machine is seen operating on a train carriage while spraying anti-bacterial disinfectants onto the seats.<br /><br />It can also be used on pavements, schools, commercial or resident buildings.<br />The robot can replace the risk of sending cleaners to coronavirus-hit towns to carry out the sanitation works.<br /><br />"You can just connect the robot to your 5G-equipped phone or tablet and control it through our designated app," Brandy told this site.<br /><br />"Alternatively you can control it using a joystick and it works like how you manoeuver a remote-controlled toy car.<br /><br />"It can reach anywhere until the battery dies, which is about two hours." <br />She said the robot can work in areas without 5G network, but, the distance would then be restricted to a range of 300 metres.<br /><br />In China, authorities have deployed spray trucks and installed "disinfectant tunnels" across the cities after thousands of people were tested positive for the deadly virus.<br /><br />Brandy explained: "Coronavirus can be easily spread through body contact, and the help of autonomous technology can reduce the risk to a minimal level.<br /><br />"The operator can view the surrounding through the camera on the robot through 5G connection before carrying out the deep clean.<br /><br />"The whole process is touch-free."<br />Daily Star Online can reveal that each robot can carry a 30litre disinfectant container with double nozzles that can spray at a range of 15,000 square-metre.<br /><br />There are currently 30 robots deployed in the country to carry out the disinfectant work.<br />But Brandy said they are looking to improve some of the specs in bids to strengthen sanitation and hygiene.<br /><br />"The nozzles we have at the moment are manually operated, we are hoping to automate it to furt
