rcj (12/13/82)
The following article appeared in the 12/12/82 Greensboro, NC Daily Record: %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% POLICE ROBOT SNUFFS OUT BOMB DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- A police robot removed a bomb from a supermarket and defused it Friday after a caller told the manager he had placed explosives in that store and 29 others, police said. The caller demanded a "large sum of money," authorities said. The remote-controlled robot wheeled a shopping cart containing the packaged explosive out to the parking lot of the Deerfield Publix Market, where a crowd of evacuated shoppers watched as the robot opened the package and defused the bomb. No injuries were reported. Nearby stores in the Palm Aire Plaza were also evacuated temporarily. No other bombs or threats had been reported at any of the 202 other Publix stores in Florida by early afternoon. No stores were reported closed. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Does anyone have any further details on this incident or on the robot involved? I am very interested in the topic of robots and specifically in the ai software involved. The word "robot" is sometimes misleading -- one of the American Heritage Dictionary's definitions of the word is: "3. Any machine or device that works automatically or by remote control." That covers a lot of ground that I could care less about, but the robot in this article seems to have a few smarts (unless its method of "defusing" the bomb in question was to stomp it to death). I am interested in robots as defined in the first definition: "1. An externally manlike mechanical device capable of performing human tasks or behaving in a human manner." (sans the "externally manlike" part). Thanks in advance to all those folks who can't forget Robbie, Curtis Jackson (...!floyd!burl!rcj)
bcw (12/14/82)
From: Bruce C. Wright @ Duke University Re: Robot defusing a bomb Are you sure that the robot defused the bomb *by itself*? In other words, that the thing wasn't under the remote control of some police officer? That seems to be a *much* safer way of defusing bombs than the traditional approach, and wouldn't require much (any?) AI software at all. Bruce C. Wright @ Duke University
geo (12/15/82)
You can find ads for these kinds of robots in the various "Jane's" annuals. I think you will find that "remote-controlled" is the crucial phrase in the article. Any intelligence displayed by these devices is that of the human operator. The British developed these to defuse bombs in Northern Ireland. They have been using them for years. Geo Swan Integrated Studies University of Waterloo
laura (12/17/82)
In Toronto I got to see a "police robot" operating by remote control, pick up and remove a phoney bomb set up for the demonstration. The actual disarming was done by a human, but the robot cut about 4 wires, freeing the bomb and moved it across the hall where the bomb expert was waiting. The robot looked like a cross between a daushand(sp) dog and a saw horse with one "hand" which was actually a combination philips screwdriver, wire cutter, pliers and lockwrench..all remotely operable. the dog also had a television lens which transmitted to the bomb squad a picture of exactly what it was doing. This was three years ago, and a prototype model ... i dont know what the current model looks like. The prototype did remove a real bomb from a secondary school in toronto and from the toronto airport 2 weeks before I got to see the prototype. (My mother taught at the school involved, which is how I heard about it) The only people I heard that werent enthused about the dog were the new recruits to the bomb squad training division who believed that the darn thing was monitoring them all the time. Senior police officials denied that this was so but the cadets (especially the female cadets who had found the dog in the washroom on at least one occasion) wouldnt believe them. Laura Creighton decvax!utzoo!laura