Every year, a number of drivers are pulled over in traffic by the police officers. And during those stops, thousands of assaults and physical altercations happen, that may result in injuries and even deaths to both police officers and suspects. In addition, there is a heavy risk from the other vehicles if a pullover happens on the side of a busy road.
How about putting a robot in risk, instead of people?
So, Reuben Brewer, a senior robotic research engineer at SRI International started building the prototype in his garage. He started designing a robot ‘RoboCop’ for making traffic stops safer for both Police officers and motorists.
Now He is developing a robot for SRI International in the company’s Applied Technologies and Science Department. And hopes that his creation can help dramatically reduce those risks during the roadside interactions.
The team recently published the performance video of their prototype on YouTube. They call it a “Police Robot” as per the IEEE Spectrum reports. They wrote in the caption of the video, “With such dangerous interactions between people, maybe it’s time to send a robot in between them, one that can’t hurt or be hurt. Our robot goes between people to keep everyone safe.”
It is not created to replace humans!
However, the Police Robot is not created to replace humans. Officers will still make the call of what vehicles to pull over. When they do so, the robot will help create a safe distance between suspects and the police while they both remain in their vehicles during testing.
As you can see in the video, the RoboCop is attached to a telescopic robotic arm that can extend from the side of the cop car to reach the window of the pulled over a vehicle in front of it. The office is then able to communicate with the driver via a webcam.
The Police robot is also able to scan the driver’s license, spit out a ticket, and even deploy spikes to stop a perp from getting away.
Reuben Brewer says, “It’s only part of the solution, but I hope one day it could save lives.“
