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A Robot Passed Me on the Sidewalk Today!

#1
Yazata Offline
I was visiting Stanford University today., to shop in their bookstore for academic philosophy books, walking through the exceedingly upscale Stanford Shopping Center next door to the campus and wasn't paying much attention, and I almost walked into a robot! It was a cone-shaped thing, about 5 feet high, with a rounded point on top and with wheels on the bottom. (It reminded me of a Dalek.) It stopped when I entered its path and it was definitely aware of me. I expected it to scream "Exterminate! Exterminate!" and try to disintegrate me with a ray, but it remained silent.

This is why I love Silicon Valley!


[Image: knightscope_k5_robot_111814.jpg?w=640]
[Image: knightscope_k5_robot_111814.jpg?w=640]



Apparently the robots are employed at the shipping center (one of the most upscale in the US) and at various Silicon Valley tech industry corporate campuses as security guards. They have the autonomous ability to size-up situations ("data analytics") and if they judge something is amiss, they automatically alert the human cops. They can also broadcast messages in emergencies, make recordings of events they encounter and stuff like that. They are unarmed.

http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2015/...-and-serve
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#2
C C Offline
Does look like a parsimonious design for a potential Dalek update. Scary choice. No spacier dome needed at the top, since these don't house Kaled mutants.
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#3
stryder Offline
The first query would be if it has a self-righting mechanism in place and how easy would it be to wobble it over (Like a drinks vending machine). It's not because I'm particularly destructive, but due to the rationality that if these are going to be patrolling campus's, won't they be the first things to be attacked during any sort of protest that escalates, or even just knocked over for the hell of it like inverting VW Beetles.
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#4
Yazata Offline
(May 26, 2016 04:02 PM)stryder Wrote: The first query would be if it has a self-righting mechanism in place and how easy would it be to wobble it over (Like a drinks vending machine).

I don't think that it's self-righting, but I can't be sure.

I was back at the Stanford Shopping Center yesterday, and saw one of these daleks rolling through a patio area filled with tables and sun-umbrellas, where people eat sandwiches and drink lattes. Several people were photographing it with their cell-phones.

Then a child, about 7 or 8 years old perhaps, started tormenting the robot. The child didn't show any fear of the thing at all. He pushed hard on the robot with both hands as it rolled by. That made the robot stop. It sat there for a few moments, then started rolling again. At which time the kid shoved on it again. Again it stopped. That happened over and over.

A human being (or even a dalek) would have gotten angry and exasperated. (The dalek would have whirled around, shouted "Exterminate!" and disintegrated the kid.) The robot just kept cycling through its subroutines. (Unexpected sensor input. Stop. Check path ahead to make sure no children or small animals are present. If clear, initiate movement.) I'm sure the robot could have kept doing that longer than the child wanted to keep harassing it. So the kid eventually relented and the robot rolled off to wherever it is that robots go.

Robots just don't get frustrated.

Quote:It's not because I'm particularly destructive, but due to the rationality that if these are going to be patrolling campus's, won't they be the first things to be attacked during any sort of protest that escalates, or even just knocked over for the hell of it like inverting VW Beetles.

I don't think that they patrol the Stanford campus, just the shopping center next to it. I think that it's still a test-of-concept thing, a technology demonstration. The robots were there last May and June, now they seem to be back, probably with some upgrades based on what they learned then.

Besides, the school is Stanford. I don't think that anyone would mess with robots just to mess with them. Stanford is what spawned Silicon Valley and they love robots and other forms of exotic tech. But some of the undergraduates would likely behave like that little kid and conduct impromptu engineering experiments, testing out how the robot would behave in problem situations. Knocking one over would probably qualify.
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#5
Yazata Offline
Where's Doctor Who when you need him?


[Image: knightscope1-750x437-e1452366512704.jpg?e410ae]
[Image: knightscope1-750x437-e1452366512704.jpg?e410ae]



Robots don't have any trouble finding girl friends.


[Image: Cgc-QRZUUAE4JMX.jpg]
[Image: Cgc-QRZUUAE4JMX.jpg]



Children like robots too.


[Image: CeAw0poVAAAHRBw.jpg]
[Image: CeAw0poVAAAHRBw.jpg]



It appears that there are at least two and maybe three models: There are those with and without the two horizontal light bars. The ones with the horizontal light bars seem to have a visual scanner in the curving slot near the top and the top of their heads is smooth and rounded. Those without seem to have a light bar in that curved slot (check out the shitty grin on the one with the girl) and have their scanner in a cylindrical thing atop their heads. The upper slot also seems to have a different shape in the example on the bottom (with the children).
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#6
Yazata Offline
The San Jose Mercury News had a front page story about the robots a few days ago.

http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/...ing-center

Here's the Mountain View California start-up that manufactures them:

http://knightscope.com/

The company doesn't sell its robots, it rents them out. I don't know what they cost. I expect that the robots themselves would be fully satisfied to be paid in electrons, but Knightscope probably wants money for their services.
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#7
C C Offline
(Jun 4, 2016 02:45 AM)Yazata Wrote: The company doesn't sell its robots, it rents them out. I don't know what they cost. I expect that the robots themselves would be fully satisfied to be paid in electrons, but Knightscope probably wants money for their services.


After that "brief" interlude, slave culture is finally poised to return.
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#8
stryder Offline
The lease business model makes sense in regards to Robots, mostly from the R&D side of things. A company would be closely monitoring the robot's actions, constantly re-evaluating code, changing hardware when technology permits etc. That's not something easily done with a business model where someone purchases the end product.

It's also a way to cover liability, after all if one of those robots goes rogue through fault or hack it will come down directly on the company that produces them, at least it will be something that they can be directly aware of, and not down to a want-to-be technician of a sub-company ...'Jamming a knife in the toaster'.
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#9
Yazata Offline
Speaking of liability, the inevitable happened and some visitors to the Stanford Shopping Center are claiming that a robot hit and ran over their toddler (who didn't suffer any serious injuries), so they are suing the crap out of everybody. (It was a get-rich-quick opportunity just waiting for somebody to seize it...)

I'm very skeptical about whether it happened as described, since there's only about an inch or two of clearance under the robots and anything bigger would be pushed rather than run over, even if the robot failed to stop (which I consider unlikely). See the photo of a robot being confronted by pre-schoolers in post #5.

I was at the shopping center this afternoon (right after hearing about the terrorist attack at a shopping center in Munich) and didn't see any of the robots around like I usually do.
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#10
Yazata Offline
(May 26, 2016 04:02 PM)stryder Wrote: The first query would be if it has a self-righting mechanism in place and how easy would it be to wobble it over (Like a drinks vending machine).

Stryder foretells the future! It happened.

A drunk guy assaulted one of these security robots as it was patrolling a corporate parking lot, knocking it over. Apparently that caused it to call for backup.

The robot suffered scratches, but was otherwise uninjured and is back on patrol. The drunk was arrested by the responding human cops for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/26/15432...ntain-view
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