iRobots to Be Equipped With Tasers! Our RoboCop Future…
If you ever thought real cops were heartless, wait until you get pulled over by a robot. Your whiney story about being late for a critical appointment certainly isn’t going to soften up their titanium.
So, how close are we to having widespread robot law enforcement and soldiers? No one knows for sure, but we got a little closer last week when the maker of floor-cleaning automatons teamed up with stun-gun manufacturer, Taser International, to arm track-wheeled 'bots for police and the Pentagon.
The company famous for making autonomous vacuum cleaners, iRobot Corp, already makes other robots for military use. They say that the new taser addition will give soldiers and law enforcement a new defensive and non-lethal tool. The taser-equipped system will be the first robot capable of using force to disable a person, rather than a bomb.
There is a widespread speculation that these types of developments will 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.
“… I think at some point toward the end of the next decade, you're going to start seeing RoboCops, or a Terminator,'' Pike said, referring to classic 1980s robot 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, says there’s no need to fear at this point.
“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.''
However, similar projects are in the works to develop robots that can make autonomous decisions. Last year Samsung came out with a sentry robot equipped with machine guns that kills on sight when it determines a human has entered the target area. As an added touch, it comes with a speaker warning people that they're about to get their face blown off by a gun-wielding robot. Nice.
US forces are engaged in an ongoing effort to automate most military activities. Earlier this year, "Team Warrior", a killer robot manufacturing alliance led by General Atomics of San Diego, CA, announced that its Warrior Extended Range/Multi Purpose Unmanned Aerial Vehicle System (ERMP UAS) would enter production for the US Army. This aerial robot eliminates the pilot altogether.
"Army Warriors will be configured to fly autonomously, and will include an automatic takeoff and landing system to reduce accidents," according to General Atomics.
As far as the iRobot/Taser project goes, Pike at GlobalSecurity.org says he believes that eventually police, SWAT teams and prison guards will use these type of Taser-equipped robots to deal with hostage situations and unruly inmates. He says they could even replace human guards.
“I could see rent-a-cop companies wanting to buy it, I can see corrections departments wanting to buy it, because it might be seen as a cost-effective alternative to having a human guard patrolling a perimeter,'' Pike said.
“For now, as soon as you let go of the joystick, the robot just sits there,'' Pike said. “So questions of moral agency don't arise -- that is to say, whose finger is on the trigger. But a little further down the road, when these ground vehicles do achieve greater autonomy, there may be no human finger on the trigger.''
Posted by Rebecca Sato
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I think that having robocops would be a good idea but how will this new type of technology change the lives of the people for the common good. In the movie I-Robot, one of the robots malfunctioned and caused great damage, what makes you think that the same thing wont happen to these new robots, are they really helpful or harmful? If somthing goes wrong with these robots, this country could be in a large friendly war with robots who have the smart mind of their own to take over with one finger on the trigger. Thing of the word MALFUNTION when you guys build these robots and think about the people living in this country and how this new type of enforcement effects them!
Posted by: Matt Kirkwood | February 04, 2008 at 10:29 AM