After the New York police, it’s the Department of Homeland Security’s turn to equip itself with robot dogs. Trained, these quadrupeds patrol along the border with Mexico to flush out migrants, arms traffickers and drug traffickers.
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Failing to build a Wall, the United States has decided to use robots to control its border with Mexico. It’s not on the set of an episode of black-mirrorbut a very real test carried out by the Department of Homeland Security who deployed dogs robots to patrol and flush out migrants who attempt to enter their territory illegally.
Behind this robot, we find the company Ghost Roboticsthe same company that recently unveiled a robot dog with a gun on his back. The beast weighs 45 kilos, and if the police have decided to call on him, it is for his versatility and his “all-terrain” side. For Gavin Kenneally, product manager, it’s a ” robust quadruped robot. It crosses all types of natural terrain, including the sandrocks and hills, as well as man-made environments, such as stairs. That’s why you need legs, not caterpillars “.
Sensors and cameras all over the body
Those robot dogs can be personalized according to the missions by adding accessories. Before heading south, they underwent “training” on the Virginia side. On the program, a so-called “initial integration of the payload” phase. These are essentially the sensors video and the like that, after being mounted on the robot dog, can transmit real-time video and other data to law enforcement. The aim was to see if these sensors were robust and if they could be controlled remotely from a laptop or a simple remote control.
The “dog” can thus carry a thermal camera, a vision sensor nocturnal, but also chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear sensors for more dangerous and more military missions. Once calibrated, the robot was dropped over hills, ravines and rocks, while carrying a payload of around 10 kilos. In El Paso, place in a sandy desert environment with a sentry role in autonomous mode, and the possibility of returning to the base alone, day or night.
Criticisms of human rights defenders
Another test: encounters with potentially hostile individuals. Piloted remotely by a border policeman, the robot actually encountered migrants, and the latter were rather disconcerted to encounter such a device. Some were scared, others were impressed to the point of wanting to take their picture.
What is certain is that this measure received as hostile a reception as that concerning Donald Trump’s wall project, or the use of robots by the New York police. Associations denounce the “inhuman” nature of such a process. “ A border agent is a human being, a person with a kind of sensitivity towards migrants, but here, with a robot, it would be very catastrophic if a accident was happening “, warns an activist, questioned by Telemundo 20. Others simply fear that the next step is to adda gun on his dogs back. It is precisely one of the flagship products of Ghost Robotics.
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