This article is from the public number: The Silicon Star (ID: guixingren123) , author: Doutzen spectrum, from FIG title: Oriental IC

Boston Dynamics has signed an agreement with the Massachusetts Police EOD Team, and has so far participated in two law enforcement cases.

Last month, Boston Dynamics’ cyber celebrity “Robot Dog” Spot robot was finally officially launched for sale. Today, the Massachusetts branch of ACLU, a non-profit organization in the United States, has released a blockbuster set of documents.

The documents show that Massachusetts State Police have leased and enabled Boston-powered robotic dogs for law enforcement.

According to the US public radio station Boston WBUR, the state police revealed: As of now, Spot robot dogs have participated in “at least two” actual law enforcement activities.

What happened during the two law enforcement processes, what role did the Spot robot play in it, and how the police used it, such as using 100% remote control, or using the autonomous driving function of the robot dog, and the current equipment It is not yet known.

Police did not disclose specific information, but said that in addition to testing, Spot robots were used in two “incident”.

Before that, the state police had tested the Spot Robot for six months.

Motion picture playback speed is about 2x

Heading up is a document from the Massachusetts Public Safety Department showing that the Massachusetts Fire Department represents the State Police’s Explosive Squad (Bomb Squad) Signed a 90-day equipment lease contract with Boston Dynamics, with the contract period from August 7 to November 5 this year.

Specifically, the Explosive Squad borrowed from Boston Dynamics: A Spot Robot Dog beta version of (commercially available firmware) , two batteries (about 90 hours Minutes) , a charger, two antennas, a JXD tablet for controlling the robot dog, and a storage box for the robot dog.


During these three months, state police leased robotic dogs from Boston Dynamics, to detect their use in law enforcement activities, especially in remote environments where criminal suspects and explosives are involved in remote inspections. Ability. “

The terms of the contract also state: If the robot dog is lost, damaged or scrapped during normal use, the State Police will pay Boston Dynamics compensation.

And after the test is completed, the state police do not have to buy the robot dogs, and the contract is not an endorsement by the police against robot dogs or Boston Dynamics. Boston Dynamics was barred from using the partnership to advertise itself.

This contract was signed by Massachusetts Fire Chief Peter J. Ostroskey and Boston Dynamics Chief Operating Officer Robert Playter.

The other documents published by the Massachusetts ACLU also include a large amount of mail, mainly internal to the State Police, the State Police and Boston Dynamics, and the State Police and other federal law enforcement agencies. (including FBI, etc.) discuss the results, value, and significance of using Spot robots in explosives incidents.

In addition to Boston Dynamics, other robot companies appearing in this set of documents include:

  • Ghost Robotics, another legged robot company similar to Boston Dynamics;

  • Endeavor Robotics, a military and commercial robot company owned by thermal imaging giant FLIR, mainly produces crawler robots;

  • Recon Robotics, the type used in the reconnaissance two-wheeled robot “Rainbow Six”;

  • Remotec, a robot company owned by the military giant Norge;

  • and iRobot—yes, the company that makes Roomba sweeping robots…

In addition to the Spot robots that are ready to go on the market, Boston Dynamics has also developed a number of different forms of robots. The current mainstream include Handle two-wheeled balance robots and Atlas humanoid robots.

Atlas can already run parkour and complete complex actions such as throwing objects in the process, but the anti-interference ability is still relatively poor.

But it ’s interesting that a folk CG team made a video of Atlas on their own to show that the robot “slave” was unwilling to kill similar (also Robot) , the story of fleeing a gun from the human “owner” is quite funny, and has also deceived many people …

againDisclaimer: The above two animations are not really Boston Dynamics, they are spoofed “Bosstown Dynamics”.

Anytime, the age of mech seems to be coming-although not two-legged, four-legged is cool enough. ( kǒng) Hyun (bù) ‘s …

The animation is from “Black Mirror” and has nothing to do with this article.

Spot robot dogs are not specialized military / police robots. In fact, Boston Dynamics developed it according to a general plan. Commercial customers can use the API provided by Boston Dynamics for extended development to meet their needs.

It is worth mentioning:

The documents show that the state police and some of the other companies mentioned above have purchase contracts ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars. But they did not sign a purchase contract or a letter of intent with Boston Dynamics.

In an interview with WBUR Radio, Boston Dynamics Vice President Michael Perry stated that it was precisely because of his prudent attitude towards the use of robotics / police that the company ultimately decided to use a lease instead of selling Spot robots to the police.

“We wrote in the lease that we must not use robots to harm or intimidate others,” said the vice president.

However, it is totally different from doing. Although the robot is not designed as a lethal weapon, it mainly depends on how people use it. In today’s United States, large-scale shootings are frequent, and local air strikes are overcast. No one can guarantee that innocent robot dogs will not be abused….

Texas ’s police is ahead: In 2016, a former U.S. soldier who was later suspected of wanting revenge on his society fired at a demonstration in a downtown area of ​​Dallas, hitting 12 policemen. Five of them were killed.

The police lost tactically to the gunman with rich combat experience, and finally chose a very controversial way to end the battle: They manipulated the detonation robot and approached the gunman to detonate C4 explosives carried by the robot.

The police who initiated and implemented this tactic were not charged in the end. However, this controversial discussion has not stopped so far

—— The mutual test between the Massachusetts Police and Boston Dynamics casts another layer of haze on the relationship between people and police …


This article is from the public account: silicon star people (ID: guixingren123) , author: spectrum Doutzen