If you’re planning on nefarious activity at Microsoft’s Silicon Valley campus, think again; Microsoft has installed security guards around the grounds that are robots 5 feet tall and weighing 300 pounds. Knightscope manufactured the robots, sans weapons, but they do feature alarms, sirens, and cameras. The alarm will alert a human security guard.
The site ExtremeTech points out that the robots will be on duty 24/7, as one charge allows them to run for 24 hours. Recharging the robots takes only 20 minutes, and they are equipped to return to the charging station of their own volition as their batteries approach depletion.
Boston Dynamics, which is owned by Google, has plans for robots to aid in military combat. They were anticipated by South Korea, which used a fully-armed robot to watch over the DMZ in 2010.
In Japan, Nextage Robots, installed two years ago, actually make ATMs and vending machines and do the equivalent of three human beings 24 hours a day. Nextage manager Toshifumi Tsuji said that in the last two years, productivity had risen by a factor of five.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.