Dutch Police Test AI-Powered Robot Dog to Raid Drug Labs (interestingengineering.com) 29
"Police and search and rescue forces worldwide are increasingly using robots to assist in carrying out their operations," writes Interesting Engineering. "Now, the Dutch police are looking at employing AI-powered autonomous robot dogs in drug lab raids to protect officers from criminal risks, hazardous chemicals, and explosions."
New Scientist's Matthew Sparkes (also a long-time Slashdot reader) shares this report: Dutch police are planning to use an autonomous robotic dog in drug lab raids to avoid placing officers at risk from criminals, dangerous chemicals and explosions. If tests in mocked-up scenarios go well, the artificial intelligence-powered robot will be deployed in real raids, say police. Simon Prins at Politie Nederland, the Dutch police force, has been testing and using robots in criminal investigations for more than two decades, but says they are only now growing capable enough to be practical for more...
Some context from Interesting Engineering: The police force in the Netherlands carries out such raids at least three to four times a week... Since 2021, the force has already been using a Spot quadruped, fitted with a robotic arm, from Boston Dynamics to carry out drug raids and surveillance. However, the Spot is remotely controlled by a handler... [Significant technological advancements] have prompted the Dutch force to explore fully autonomous operations with Spot.
Reportedly, such AI-enabled autonomous robots are expected to inspect drug labs, ensure no criminals are present, map the area, and identify dangerous chemicals... Initial tests by force suggest that Spot could explore and map a mock drug lab measuring 15 meters by 20 meters. It was able to find hazardous chemicals and put them away into a designated storage container.
Their article notes that Spot "can do laser scans and visual, thermal, radiation, and acoustic inspections using add-on payloads and onboard cameras." (A video from Boston Dynamics — the company behind Spot — also seems to show the robot dog spraying something on a fire.)
The video seems aimed at police departments, touting the robot dog's advantages for "safety and incident response":
New Scientist's Matthew Sparkes (also a long-time Slashdot reader) shares this report: Dutch police are planning to use an autonomous robotic dog in drug lab raids to avoid placing officers at risk from criminals, dangerous chemicals and explosions. If tests in mocked-up scenarios go well, the artificial intelligence-powered robot will be deployed in real raids, say police. Simon Prins at Politie Nederland, the Dutch police force, has been testing and using robots in criminal investigations for more than two decades, but says they are only now growing capable enough to be practical for more...
Some context from Interesting Engineering: The police force in the Netherlands carries out such raids at least three to four times a week... Since 2021, the force has already been using a Spot quadruped, fitted with a robotic arm, from Boston Dynamics to carry out drug raids and surveillance. However, the Spot is remotely controlled by a handler... [Significant technological advancements] have prompted the Dutch force to explore fully autonomous operations with Spot.
Reportedly, such AI-enabled autonomous robots are expected to inspect drug labs, ensure no criminals are present, map the area, and identify dangerous chemicals... Initial tests by force suggest that Spot could explore and map a mock drug lab measuring 15 meters by 20 meters. It was able to find hazardous chemicals and put them away into a designated storage container.
Their article notes that Spot "can do laser scans and visual, thermal, radiation, and acoustic inspections using add-on payloads and onboard cameras." (A video from Boston Dynamics — the company behind Spot — also seems to show the robot dog spraying something on a fire.)
The video seems aimed at police departments, touting the robot dog's advantages for "safety and incident response":
- Enables safer investigation of suspicious packages
- Detection of hazardous chemicals
- De-escalation of tense or dangerous situations
- Get eyes on dangerous situations
It also notes the robot "can be operated from a safe distance," suggesting customers "Use Spot® to place cameras, radios, and more for tactical reconnaissance."
You don't need a robot for that (Score:2)
"Their article notes that Spot "can do laser scans and visual, thermal, radiation, and acoustic inspections using add-on payloads and onboard cameras." (A video from Boston Dynamics — the company behind Spot — also seems to show the robot dog spraying something on a fire.)"
Big deal. Based on what I've observed, my male dog could probably be easily trained to spray something on a fire, too.
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They are currently using public funds from a federal government grant to study the fire size vs beer required ratio varying by dog weight, height and breed. They expect to use AI and quantum theory to calculate the correct ratios over the course of this 5 year study. The preliminary results to be stored on the government's internally Amazon hosted blockchain.
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my male dog could probably be easily trained to spray something on a fire, too.
The very point is we don't need to endanger dog lives. Dogs are great companions and they trust us. Exposing them to fire hazards in drug labs because we're too afraid to go is a specially inhumane thing to do.
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The far bigger deal is that The Netherlands has finally exited the 1960s and realized that getting high isn't the answer.
Watched too many movies (Score:2)
I would prefer being raided by a robot than a human. Humans aretrigger happy and afraid for their own life. The robot will be more concerned with preserving life so that the department or company wont get sued.
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Re:Watched too many movies (Score:4, Funny)
That was just a minor bug. We are fixing it in the next software release. AI are more reliable than humans. Move along, citizen.
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That was a fictional movie scene, here is what happens in real life with humans: https://youtu.be/WViiA3XHoAY [youtu.be]
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Yeah but humans can question their orders. The robots could be ordered to go all Hitler on some group, and could in theory kill people by the millions, and depending on their programming might for even declare silicon the master race and try to take over the world.
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You're projecting. It is humans that have "gone Hitler" and killed people by the millions, and literally tried to take over the world. And Hitler is no anomaly. There are a millions of humans who overtly support Hitler's actions even today. And any glance at history will reveal there have been other leaders equally power mad as Hitler (Genghis Khan, Ashoka, Pizarro, Attila the Hun, and thousands with equal ambition but less success). to conquer the world and kill millions of people they figured were lesser
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The robot won't be "concerned" with anything.
It will follow its code which may or may not result in varying levels of physical harm to your person up to and including death which may or may not be in response to your actions, inactions or mere presence.
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I would prefer being raided by a robot than a human. Humans aretrigger happy and afraid for their own life. The robot will be more concerned with preserving life so that the department or company wont get sued.
True ... it wouldn't need to be perfect; only better than the humans who seem to be always doing no-knock raids on the wrong house. Not a very high bar?
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The robots could be dramatically worse than the humans in most regards, all they really need is to not be armed or have a few fairly simple bits of programming. Though I imagine a comparison to Dutch cops would be different than to American cops. If the robots are cheap enough, getting video proof of destruction of government property might pay their cost in saving on lawyer fees.
Send in the Drones (Score:1)
More and more police and military forces across the world are using our tax money to buy drones and robots.
It seems pretty clear to me that we are quickly moving into a world where it is acceptable to remove the humans, in essence testing the lines of what we will all collectively put up with. AI to replace people. Drones and robots to replace people.
As this tech develops, this will be purchased by governments and authoritarians to control people. Laws will be made, these robots, and people behind scr
Re:Send in the Drones (Score:4, Interesting)
There are two problems with sending in humans in the context of a police raid:
1. Those humans tend to get shot. Having police officers injured or killed is expensive and painful for them, their families and friends, and the taxpayers who have to pay for their rehabilitation or replacement.
2. Knowing (1), those police officers tend to be very on-edge and very willing to shoot first, in the hopes of avoiding getting shot. This results in yet more humans getting shot, often in situations where shooting them wasn't even necessary or beneficial to anyone.
So yes, beware the robot dystopia and all that, but that's mitigated by the fact that we're already living in a sort of gun dystopia, where every year thousands of unnecessary deaths occur because so many people have a gun and are trying to be the guy who shot first rather than the guy who got shot.
If sending in a robot means nobody gets shot, that's a good thing. If the robot gets shot, that's fine; it's just a machine and it can be repaired or replaced. Also the fact that the robot was shot at tells the police that someone inside the building is armed and dangerous, which is important information for them to know. Currently they just assume that in all cases.
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Not quite. If someone shoots at the robot, then you know that someone inside is armed. But if no one shoots at the robot, you don't know that no one is armed. They could be armed and saving ammunition for the human cops. So no matter what, when the humans enter they still have to assume that the baddi
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Not quite. If someone shoots at the robot, then you know that someone inside is armed. But if no one shoots at the robot, you don't know that no one is armed. They could be armed and saving ammunition for the human cops. So no matter what, when the humans enter they still have to assume that the baddies are armed.
Agreed, but having sent the robot in, you now have video and audio footage (and possibly other data, such as infrared) from the robot detailing the interior of the building.
Of course it is possible that someone is sufficiently well-hidden in the building that the neither the robot nor any of the officers watching the robot's footage was able to detect their presence; but at least they aren't going in blind with no knowledge of what they might encounter inside. At the very least they can see in advance wher
How soon (Score:2)
Before one of these robots becomes a Runaway [wikipedia.org]?
"Add-ons" (Score:2)
Correction (Score:1)
non-paywalled link (Score:2)
non-paywalled link:
https://interestingengineering... [interestin...eering.com]
This one interesting too, from Simon Prins his blog:
https://www.simonprins.com/dog... [simonprins.com]
The real solution is... (Score:2)