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 ...
Anyone thats attended the annual ASIS International Convention has seen these robots since at least 1992 wandering around the exhibit halls.
Armed with more than tasers, btw.
You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads!
I figured someone HAD to have started making them; good to know.
I figured someone HAD to have started making them; good to know.
It looks like they are going into the field this year:
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=762
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/2007/06/israel-deploying-seeshoot-rws-along-gaza/index.php
Check out the Samsung SGR-A1 (Sentry Guard Robot) and the Israeli Samson Jr.
Samsung SGR-A1 - unit cost $200K. Cheap compared to a soldier, IMHO.
Wow. Not even close. :-P
what’s “not even close”? Quotes or the Ed-209 look?
You forgot this one:
Zeroth law: A robot may not injure humanity, or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.
Quotes are way off. :-)
well, i’m going by memory and haven’t seen it in a while. You’re welcome to post exact quotes at your leisure.
I think it goes like:
ED-209: Please put down your weapon, you have 20 seconds to comply.
Dick Jones: You’d better do as he says, Mr. Kinney.
ED-209: (whhhrrrr - malfunction noise, sounds like a growl) You have 15 second to comply.
ED-209: You have ten seconds to comply.
(panic breaks out)
ED-209: You have five seconds to comply. Four. Three. Two. One. I am now authorized to use physical force.
Bam - bam - bam. Random banter about a paramedic.
Old Man: Dick, I’m *very* disappointed.
Yes, that does sound more accurate...
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