Posted on 06/29/2007 8:05:47 AM PDT by RDTF
RoboCops and robot soldiers got a little closer to becoming reality Thursday as a maker of floor-cleaning and reconnaissance automatons teamed up with a stun-gun manufacturer to arm the track-wheeled bots for police and the Pentagon.
By adding Tasers to robots it already makes for the military, iRobot Corp. said it hopes to give soldiers and law enforcement a defensive, nonlethal tool.
But some observers fear such developments could ultimately lead to robots capable of deciding on their own when to shoot and kill.
"It's one more step in that direction," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, an Alexandria, Va.-based military research organization.
"It is not the first step in that direction, but I think at some point toward the end of the next decade, you're going to start seeing RoboCops or Terminator," Pike said, referring to the robot-themed sci-fi films. "We may see autonomous robots capable of inflicting lethal force."
Jim Rymarcsuk, vice president for business development at Burlington, Mass.-based iRobot, said notions of armed robots acting on their own are far beyond what the company envisions for the partnership announced Thursday with Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Taser International.
"Right now, we have no plans to take any robot with a lethal-weapon approach to the market," Rymarcsuk said. "For this system, and all systems we have looked at, there is a human in the loop making the decisions. This in no way is giving the robot the capability to use force on its own."
Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed. The companies said they have a model that will be demonstrated at a conference Taser is holding in Chicago on July 9-10. The model pairs iRobot's existing PackBot Explorer with the Taser X26, in what iRobot calls "the first robot of its kind with an on-board, integrated Taser payload."
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
IED Scouts?
Somebody should warn Sarah Conner.....
This can’t end well ....
Keep em off of Skynet and it will be cool...8>)
This can’t end well ...."
I have often wondered why a program hadn’t been developed that would detect human form/heat signatures, motion, et al, and them have .50 cals tied to it.
(Saw this in “Aliens” and it ocurred to me that it would be easy to do with existing tech.)
I would think that would be an excellent permiter defense, even maybe a “leave behind” defense that frees soldiers for forward motion that blows itself up after a period of time.
I just don’t think it would be that expensive.
But some observers fear such developments could ultimately lead to robots capable of deciding on their own when to shoot and kill.Deciding on their own? Interesting choice of words. Do landmines, electrical fences, or big deep holes decide on their own whom to injure? Ridiculous.
Or for home defense! Don’t forget that! :-D
Greeeeeeaaat . . .
Wonderfulllllllllll . . .
“Stop or I will shoot. Shoot. Shoot. Shoot. Shoot. Reboot. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. Service required, service required, service required, error 318. Error 318.”
Bit indescriminating.
That said, we have an alarm system at work that goes off if someone without a proper RFID tag goes in (basically a IFOF — ID Friend Or Foe) or a visitor (who have a little bracelet) goes beyond where they are supposed to go.
I would think much the same could be worked into this type of security system, even with a sub-cuteous RFID tag.
“Please put down your weapon. you have 20 seconds to comply”
-RoboCop
"Drop your weapons, you have twenty seconds to comply!"
.
.
.
.
"You now have ten seconds!"
A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
I’m surprised they haven’t come up with riot control robots that could divide a mob while spraying a cloud of tear gas and having a high voltage electrified body so that anyone who touches it gets a painful shock. It could also spray a mist of identifying chemical on the skin and clothing of rioters, or a spray of “super slick” on the street, which makes it very hard to walk on without slipping and falling.
Remote controlled, it would have all sorts of options.
PUHLEEZ! We're a long way from computer programs that could do anything like that. And machines can never, and will never, be able to truly think. Thinking requires apprehension, which is an essentially spiritual activity.
Sounds like a job for Optimus Prime!
Um... those are sentry guns in Aliens - and the Koreans and Israelis have already started to make them.
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