RSSiRobot Teams With Taser for Armed Robots
By Ed Oswald | Published June 29, 2007, 1:04 PM
Although its more commonly known for its floor-cleaning robots, iRobot also contracts out to law enforcement and the Pentagon. A new robot could soon be armed to assist soldiers and law enforcement.
The company said Thursday that it teamed up with the maker of Tasers to incorporate the technology into robots that it builds for its clients. The first prototype of a model using the technology will be shown off at a Taser conference in Chicago, July 9-10.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, and iRobot has not said how much the units would sell for.
iRobot used its PackBot line for its Taser-enabled robots. The vehicle is designed to investigate hazardous areas, and can be hand carried and driven by a single operator. The modular design of these devices made adding Taser simple, the company says.
About 1,000 of the robots have already been deployed, and iRobot said that some of them are helping to detect and defuse IEDs in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The addition of TASER technologies onto iRobot platforms will provide a critical tool for SWAT, law enforcement and military to handle a variety of dangerous scenarios," the company's government and industry division president Vice Admiral Joe Dyer said.
There is opposition to iRobot's moves. Taser has recently come under fire due to several instances where a Taser gun shock has actually proven fatal. The stun gun is intended to only subdue a suspect, not inflict a lethal blow.
Others say that iRobot's steps only mean an autonomous robot capable of deciding on its own when to shoot and kill. "It's one more step in that direction," GlobalSecurity.org director John Pike told the Associated Press Thursday.
"I think at some point toward the end of the next decade, you're going to start seeing RoboCops, or a Terminator. We may see autonomous robots capable of inflicting lethal force."
iRobot denied that is where the industry is going, saying that is far beyond what is being announced this week.
I've read several other articles about the robots the Pentagon currently has and the hunter/killer robots they would like to see developed. All this bothers me quite a bit.
First, I just don't think it a good idea to teach robots to hunt and kill humans. After all, don't we have enough stuff trying to kill us each and every day? How many more things do we need killing us?
Second, if the last election taught us anything, it taught us that machines will do what the programmers want them to do (Ohio Anyone?). Period, simple and end of story. This isn't I Robot. This is for real and we can be sure that there wont be any governing laws that the robots will have to obey like in the movies.
We're screwed.
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|We're screwed.
Seriously, what's new? Conspiracy theorists have been telling us this since before sliced bread.
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|I can just hear it now... "EXTERMINATE"
Wonder if my copy of the "Dalek Survival Guide" would apply in this situation?
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|idont know if i like the sounds of robots with weapons, maybe its just all the sifi crap i saw when i was a kid, but i mean what benifit is it to shock a person with a tazor from a robot, in a riot?
arnt riots there for a reason? either an economic issue, or picketing for a cause? that generally they as the consumers or the victoms are right? so lets send in a robot with a weapon that has been known to be leathal, and kill those who stand for whats right?
(this is taken that most times riots were for good causes..)
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|(this is taken that most times riots were for good causes..)
Perhaps in an ideal world. It usually turns out the folks rioting couldn't care less about the supposed "issue" they are rioting about and instead just want to break stuff and get some loot.
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|I want one that will chase away the feral cat my neighbor feeds.
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|What's wrong with a .22?
No need for a robot to take care of that problem. :)
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|nice, another comedian..
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|So when the armed iRobot has finished cleaning up the town, does it say "I'll be vac"?
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|Ba-Dum-dum-tisk!
*Bad joke drum line, much harder to type then it is to make the noise* =)
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|you mean a "rimshot?"
http://www.urbandictiona...define.php?term=Rimshot
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|I, for one, welcome our face-melting, room-cleaning, robotic overlords.
Send in the 'Cleaners', indeed.
In Soviet Russia, Robot arms you?
And, of course..
Yeah, but does it run Linux?
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