AUTOMATION Robot Density Gets Denser Brain Corp. As the coronavirus has spread, robots are having the "put me in coach" moment they've secretly been waiting for all along.  A Starship Technologies exec said demand for its autonomous food delivery service "has expanded exponentially" during the pandemic, and it's been launching operations in new markets (Tempe, AZ) as recently as last week. Alphabet's drone subsidiary, Wing, is busy dropping off packages in Virginia. And Amazon is still testing its Scout delivery robot in Snohomish County, WA, and Irvine, CA, a source said.  Then there's retail. Autonomous mobile robots (AMR) are currently doing 8,000+ hours of cleaning work a day, Brain Corp. VP Phil Duffy (no relation) told me. His company provides the technology for a fleet of 10,000+ retail and industrial AMRs, which do the "dull, dirty, or dangerous tasks."  Duffy said these bots are running more cleaning and restocking routes. They're also gathering data on which store aisles have the most foot traffic and may need more cleaning. Let me guess—it's the one with beer and wine.  Zoom out: The pandemic makes robots an enticing source of labor for companies selling staple goods. Since some retailers are currently hiring by the hundreds of thousands, it seems robots are for now augmenting jobs, not replacing them.