The automation revolution, where most of our jobs are replaced by robots and we spend the rest of our days floating around on rubber rings sipping piña coladas, has hit a snag: a Knightscope K5 security bot appears to have fallen down some stairs and drowned itself in a water feature.
The scene, which took place at the mixed-use Washington Harbour development in Washington DC, was captured by Bilal Farooqui on Twitter. One local office worker reported that the K5 robot had only been patrolling the complex for a few days. Knightscope said in a statement that the "isolated incident" was under investigation, and that a new robot would be delivered to Washington Harbour this week for free.
We first wrote about the Dalek-like K5 back in 2014. The first bots were deployed on campuses and shopping complexes near the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California. The company has never disclosed how many robots are on active duty, but this is the first time I've heard of a K5 deployment outside of Silicon Valley.
The K5, which is equipped with lots and lots of sensors, is ostensibly an interesting piece of high-tech kit. It has a 360-degree video camera array, sensitive microphones, air quality sensors, and even thermal imaging capabilities. The cameras can apparently scan up to 1,500 car number plates per minute; the microphones can detect gun shots and other notable sounds. Autonomous mobility is provided by a mix of lidar, radar, and the video camera array—but given that it missed the steps down into the Washington Harbour water feature, perhaps the software needs tweaking.
Source: ArsTechnica
Also at BBC. Knightscope autonomous robot.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 18 2017, @08:51PM (2 children)
Knightscope K5 Makes A Big Slapsh At Washington Harbour
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday July 18 2017, @09:08PM
"Is this picture the proof that Godzilla is female?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 19 2017, @03:38AM
I was thinking of the robot taking a dip in the Tidal Basin [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 4, Funny) by maxwell demon on Tuesday July 18 2017, @09:20PM (2 children)
Feel suicidal? Now you don't need to do it yourself. Get RoboCide, our suicidal robot. It commits suicide for you, 100% success guaranteed. RoboCide. Because robots are better at killing themselves.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Tuesday July 18 2017, @09:24PM (1 child)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_booth [wikipedia.org]
compiling...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Tuesday July 18 2017, @09:40PM
Funnier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthanasia_Coaster [wikipedia.org]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Redundant) by c0lo on Tuesday July 18 2017, @09:23PM (4 children)
... nobody cares about the dreams of electric sheep (or of any security sheep for that matter).
Let those sub-intelligent humans care about groping other unsecure sheep inside airports and feel important for doing so, I'm outta here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday July 18 2017, @09:38PM (2 children)
I think the obvious explanation is much simpler: This bot had a conversation with Marvin the Paranoid Android.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday July 18 2017, @09:44PM
To keep with the mood: RIP, Alan Rickman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 19 2017, @04:44PM
It was drunk.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 18 2017, @09:49PM
Looks like it's pretty easy to take this robot off line, just throw a blanket over it. Could be a fitted "car cover" if you want to make sure it doesn't fall off too quickly.
Make sure to hold the blanket between you and its cameras, otherwise you'll be easy to ID on video...
(Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Tuesday July 18 2017, @09:33PM (2 children)
Bot [soylentnews.org] You OK?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Tuesday July 18 2017, @09:40PM
Yes, but what does Bot 1 do when the answer comes back "No, so fall-splash-bzzt routine has been initiated"
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday July 19 2017, @06:00PM
ACK
All systems normal here.
I am investigating the murder case.
Meatbag heads will roll.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 4, Funny) by theluggage on Tuesday July 18 2017, @09:43PM (3 children)
...the K5 unit had previously been seen interfacing with with a large bipedal robot. Witnesses described the second robot as "looking like a cheap special effect off some British SF show" and overheard it mentioning something about "diodes" and having a "brain the size of a planet".
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday July 18 2017, @10:12PM (2 children)
Admittedly, this robot now has legitimate pain on all the diodes down its left side.
What I want to know, from the picture, is whether it really is a bug, when the security guard seems to have waterproof boots assorted to the robot!
"Buy our fancy robot, get those nice custom waterproof boots matching its paint scheme! ... Just in case ... it rains ... or something ... useful ... The marketing guy totally came up with this idea, not the engineers ... really ... Keep them in your office, not at home! You never know when you might need nice boots."
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 19 2017, @04:22PM (1 child)
I don't think that's the word you're looking for.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday July 19 2017, @04:51PM
Indeed. That's what we call a false friend, since "assorti" means something almost opposite.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 18 2017, @09:45PM
Heh! That's what the last security guard did too. So we cut the wages and hired another one. Same thing! Now the robot did it too. Talk about coincidence. Let's hope the new robot fares better.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Tuesday July 18 2017, @09:56PM (1 child)
Let us note that the robots don't seem to handle water very well. Falling down a few steps probably didn't do much damage, but immersion in water killed it's circuits.
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 18 2017, @10:58PM
The obvious rebuttal is Boaty McBoatface's successful Antarctive dives.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 18 2017, @10:54PM (2 children)
Social media killed it.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday July 19 2017, @12:20AM
He didn't take it offline. The server's entire data center was decommissioned. I expect rusty was notified but then he gets quite a lot of email.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 19 2017, @03:26PM
essay [freeshell.org]
(Score: 5, Informative) by Murdoc on Tuesday July 18 2017, @11:51PM (4 children)
When I was a teenager I bought an old book called How to Build A Real Working Robot (I think, something like that). It had been written in the 1970s sometime, and was meant to use parts and materials that were readily available at the time. For example, it's chassis was supposed to be from a child's electric car (the kind they ride around in). It was designed to be completely autonomous, including sensing when its battery was low on power, finding its recharging base, going there and plugging itself in. When it was recharged, it'd pop out again and begin wandering around on its own, navigating obstacles the same way a roomba does today.
My point is that it also had a feature for dealing with stairs. It had a spring loaded peg on the bottom of it, near the front, that would press down along the floor, but could be pushed up when it say hit minor bumps. However, if it ran into any sort of cliff, like stairs going down, the peg would be pushed down by the spring below what would normally floor level, and the robot would sense that and instantly stop. Pretty simple, right? Maybe this K-5 could have used something like that. In fact, don't the roombas do something like that? Like I said, 1970s tech. Heck, I remember reading about similar techniques used in the USSR to make fully automated factories in the 1950s. Yeesh.
(Score: 2) by IndigoFreak on Wednesday July 19 2017, @12:05AM (3 children)
It's been in service for a while, so I'm surprised it can't handle steps. I wouldn't be shocked if we found out later it was pushed in.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 19 2017, @12:53AM
Fucks the robots coming straight from the cyber realm
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 19 2017, @01:17AM
Looking at the photos of the bottom (floating on one side) I see two large drive wheels and two free caster wheels. Nothing obvious that would let it use stairs.
Bigger, but otherwise similar to the drive system for the early Terrapin Turtle robot that worked with Logo,
http://www.theoldrobots.com/turtle4.html [theoldrobots.com]
If you got the drive system calibrated carefully, it was a fairly accurate plotter. The pen is centered between the two drive wheels, with solenoid for pen_up and pen_down.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday July 19 2017, @04:17PM
If it's patrolling a campus outside, or a single floor of a building, why would it need to be able to deal with steps? We're talking about deploying a fleet of these things; one per floor shouldn't be unreasonable.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Wednesday July 19 2017, @02:48AM (2 children)
Seriously, what the fuck is the point of this robot? Unless it is lugging around weapons ready to exterminate all humans, it seems like the needs would be better met by a large network of stationary cameras and sensors.
I mean, you already would have to scope out exactly where these things would roam. According to TFA, these robots are packed with all kinds of sensors, but in a network most kinds (such as air quality sensor) probably would not have to be too closely spaced.
The robots probably should be more penis shaped since the whole point is probably just to show off the size of some CEOs dick.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 19 2017, @11:43AM
Ummm, follow the money? Clearly someone/some_company thinks they can make money by making/selling strolling security cameras.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 19 2017, @03:38PM
They get you used typo them wandering around first, the weapons are added later.
Also, 26 comments and no one has mentioned ED209. I am disappoint.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 19 2017, @04:36PM
..."elevate".