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Title    San Francisco Animal Shelter Rents Robotic Guard
Date    Saturday December 16 2017, @08:06AM
Author    mrpg
Topic   
from the hack-the-animal-planet dept.
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=17/12/15/199226

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Source: Animal shelter faces backlash after using robot to scare off homeless people:

The San Francisco branch of the SPCA (the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) hired a K5 robot built by Knightscope to patrol the sidewalks outside its facilities. According to a report from the San Francisco Business Times, the robot was deployed as a “way to try dealing with the growing number of needles, car break-ins and crime that seemed to emanate from nearby tent encampments of homeless people.”

[...] The robot in question is equipped with four cameras, moves at a pace of three miles per hour, and is cheaper than a human security guard — costing around $6 an hour to rent. Knightscope’s bots are some of the most popular robot guards around and have popped up in the news in the past. The same model of robot previously knocked over a toddler in a mall and fell into a fountain in DC. Knightscope says its robots are intended as deterrents, and for providing mobile surveillance.

[...] According to the SPCA, attacks have already taken place, with Scarlett telling the Business Times that within a week of the robot starting its duties, some people “put a tarp over it, knocked it over and put barbecue sauce on all the sensors.” One Twitter user reported seeing the robot with feces smeared on it.


Original Submission

Links

  1. "Animal shelter faces backlash after using robot to scare off homeless people" - https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/13/16771148/robot-security-guard-scares-homeless-san-francisco
  2. "report from the San Francisco Business Times" - https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2017/12/08/security-robot-homeless-spca-mission-san-francisco.html
  3. "knocked over a toddler in a mall" - https://www.theverge.com/2016/7/13/12170640/mall-security-robot-k5-knocks-down-toddler
  4. "fell into a fountain in DC" - https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2017/7/17/15986042/dc-security-robot-k5-falls-into-water
  5. "reported" - https://twitter.com/TysonKallberg/status/928675069533945856
  6. "Original Submission" - https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=23823

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