Height: 1.49 meters. Weight: 78 kilograms. Diameter: 80 centimeters. Maximum speed: 18 km / h. Average patrol speed: 1 km / h.
It is the technical sheet of AnBot, the surveillance robot that has just been presented by the National Defense University of China.
Its creators claim that it is a machine capable of moving autonomously, although it is also controlled remotely; If we look at the current level of development of the much publicized driverless cars , it is likely that the first versions of AnBot that enter service (there is no date) will always work under direct human supervision.
This artificial security has visual and acoustic sensors, and its processors analyze the videos it films in search of suspicious movements.
With enough energy to work eight hours without a break, AnBot will help with anti-terrorism and anti-riot surveillance tasks, which in a dictatorship like China has a clear meaning, according to its detractors: it will serve to suppress demonstrations and protests by dissidents.
The robot integrates in its body a distress button that connects it with the police, and a very controversial element: a taser , a tool that shoots needles that administer an electric shock through a cable.
AnBot is a prototype that still seems far from patrolling the streets, but it opens a disturbing avenue for the technological control of citizens.
Photo (Chinanews.com): An operator uses a remote control to demonstrate AnBot’s skills.
