#robot police dogs

[ausetkmt]

A New York City councilmember is introducing legislation that would ban the New York City Police Department (NYPD) from using weaponized robots.

Councilman Ben Kallos will introduce the legislation today, which would amend the POST Act, a law that requires the NYPD to be more transparent about its surveillance tactics.

Specifically, Kallos’ legislation would ban weaponizing remote or autonomous robots that interact with people in New York City.

The legislation may be the first of its kind in the country, according to Wired.

The proposed legislation comes after the NYPD used a robotic dog built by Boston Dynamics, called “Digidog,” during a hostage situation in the Bronx last month. The robot has cameras, lights, and a communication system attached to it, according to the New York Times.

Video of the robot police dog, which isn’t armed, went viral, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) criticized it as “robotic surveillance ground drones.” Other police departments in the country have used the robots in the past.

Kallos’ bill would make it so that any kind of autonomous robot used by police—like robot police dogs or drones—that interacts with the public in the future doesn’t have weaponry attached to it, his office said in a statement.

In the statement, Kallos said he wanted to make sure the city didn’t feel “like a Black Mirror episode.”

“The technology to arm robots already exists and in order to prevent anything like that from happening we have to act now, before the technology gets ahead of the laws,” Kallos said.

As Wired notes, Boston Dynamics prohibits attaching weapons as part of the company’s terms of service. But the potential for arming robot police dogs is not farfetched.

Last month, MSCHF, a New York-based company known for its outrageous publicity stunts and product drops, attached a paintball gun to a “Spot” robot made by Boston Dynamics and allowed people to virtually control it and shoot paintballs in an art gallery.

[t0mies-b0dy]

AND HERE COMES THE ANTI FACISTS WITH A STEEL CHAIR

Yo the robbo police dogs are designed to be kickproof. That stuff got figured out years ago, you can’t just kick them over

if you're referring to the clip of a Boston Dynamics robot being kicked and recovering balance, that was for a canceled military contract and was a much larger (and therefore steadier) platform than Spot, which is what's currently available to cops. even if you assume Spot can recover from being kicked, there are still at least a dozen better approaches to disabling it before resorting to Scooby Doo shit with blankets and buckets of water. it relies on a bunch of cameras to get information about its environment; kick any of those hard enough and it's blind. it's rated for a maximum payload of 14kg (about 30lbs); just fucking. goomba stomp it. jump and land on top of it. youll break a servo or pop the battery out or something. there's no need to start talking about cyberpunk Future Warfare guerilla tactics when caveman "hit it very hard" tactics work just as well and can actually be executed in the heat of a protest

[bloggerpaul]

Blogger Paul “Robot Police Dogs” Okay! I Think I Am Going To Wait To See How This Is Going To End Up? https://bloggerpaul.com

[artfartt]

Exam doodles + a random page i found in my math binder

[cidandy]

19 & 20 :^)

i drew heb office dandy jink because it's been a very long time since i drew him & i HAATE my old office au art so i had to make up for it somehow 🙏

for the pets prompt i was going to do more ferret stuff, but then i thought about those funny little robots dogs...& I THINK THEY'RE SO CUTEEE :^( /pos

like this guy :^)

[peachnewt]

Midnight Snack - Dogs vs Moths

Necessity is the mother of invention. But being bitter, pissed off, and determined is at least a sibling to invention.

Two weeks after New York's finest rolled out their Robot squad, consisting of ten robotic "dogs", they were used in the suppression of a protest. Originally a peaceful protest until someone yanked a flag out of a protestor's hands and ripped it while shouting expletives. Yelling, pushing, phones capturing the phenomenon of one idiot baiting an already wounded social movement.

Of course the cops came. Of course they set the robotic dogs on the ones holding the signs asking to be heard. There were more protestors than baiters, therefore they were the ones that needed to be "quieted down".

Of course people got hurt.

One woman broke three of her fingers, trying to get her sleeve out of the robot dog's joints, and ended up being dragged 9 yards. One teenage boy suffered a concussion, knocked out when a robot dog ran him over and made him fall onto a curb. And one elderly man, not part of the protest or baiters, just a guy trying to get a bag of apples from one side of the street to the other, tried fending off one of the robot dogs, only for his cane to accidentally strike the cap off the canister for the flamethrower option that the police assured the public "was not operational", and "had safety measures that made what happened a one in a million chance".

The fiery plume had been seen three blocks away. People ran, flattening signs, bodies, and the fallen apples into mush. The old man was still in a burn ward a week later.

Social media threads tried pointing out the countless dangers and damage the dog-shaped robots had done. The press conference given by the police commissioner had called the deployment of the robots a "success against those who would work against law and order".  He neglected to mention that the protestors had a permit for their protest and it had been legal.

Of course outcry against the robot dogs were stifled as hypothetical "good reasons" to use the robot dogs were passed out. Dangerous domestic situation? Use a robot dog instead of cop. Fire in a building? Use a lightweight robot dog to find survivors quicker, making fire and rescue more efficient. Need a guard for a daycare facility against "child predators"? Robot dog; cheaper in the long run, and doesn't have to pass a background check.

Why would a child try to pet the robot dog and get their fingers caught in the joints and seams? That would never happen. It's not a pet, the child should know better.

And yet the police unit with the ten robot dogs had an elementary school submit names for the robotic units. Names like Spot, Basil, Fluffy, Corncob, Piddle, Optimus Prime, Shadow, Terminator, Frankenpup, and Ash.

Of course some people got angry.

And Will was more than angry as he read article after article and social post about the ten robot dogs being hailed as "law enforcement's best friend".

Louis had walked by with another stack of patents and eyed the steaming mug of tea in Will's hand. "Fanboy, any harder and you're going to break that mug."

Will glared at the screen and put down his tea. "Have you seen this?"

"Yes." Louis put half the patents on Will's desk before sitting at his own. "And you should hear what Megan had to say to it."

"Right. She's a former cop. She pissed?"

"She's been going through her contacts to find anyone associated with NYPD or company that made those robotic canines and sold them. She wants to yell at someone so bad.

"How bad?"

"There might be an impromptu combat tutorial later tonight. Make sure you're wearing your cup if you're going to be dumb enough to be the "volunteer" again."

Will hissed and adjusted his hips in the chair. He didn't want to remember the last time he forgot.  "Noted."

Thankfully the "combat tutorial" was cancelled by alarms blaring and Will and Louis running off to find something that someone else found and shouldn't have.

Instead Megan posted an article on the community board of things to do when encountering a robot dog.

1 - Run

or

2 - Smash the hellhound with a long blunt object. Then run.

Three weeks, and another "successful deployment of robotic units" later, a high school robotics team from a small town in Oklahoma submitted their winning design to the patent office. The submission was a formality, for the students, and teacher in charge of the robotics team, had uploaded the schematics to the internet under public domain.

The winning robot was a moth whose hollow body was little bigger than a can of spray paint, and wings over two meters wide. A head with two curly feelers and wide jewel-like eyes, contained a spraying nozzle.  The wing span was necessary due to what it's hollow body would carry.

A can of expanding foam.

They had named it Sky-ju. Probably because naming it Mothra wasn't allowed for copyright reasons.

With the schematics came a video file showing how the robot would flutter off the ground, swoop, hover, and, with the instruction of the person holding the controller, spray the expanding foam on a cardboard cutout shaped suspiciously like a robot dog.

The robot dog was smothered, and the Sky-ju flitted off to spray another day.

Of course Will followed a link to give a charitable donation to the school's club.

A day later someone submitted an altered patent for the moth, but a third of the size, and instead of holding a spray can, it could hold a small bladder full of salty, sticky, pickle juice to aim at the joints of robot dogs. And this one came with a black furry covering for the body that could be removed and cleaned.

It had been named Fluff-ra. And kids were allowed to pet it without fear of their fingers being stuck in joints. As proven by the video posted later that day of kids taking turns with Fluff-ra in a park, squirting down empty soda cans.

There had been a "support me" link. Or course Will bought a Fluff-ra acrylic charm. It would go perfectly with his collection of other nerd-flavored charms he hung on his Christmas tree like ornaments.

Louis, of course sipped his coffee, and shook his head. "You know there could be problems with this getting into the wrongs hands."

Will sighed and signed off the latest patent for a three chambered thermos.  "I know," he admitted.

"What's  to stop someone turning the moths into flamethrowers? Or to give it a can of Axe spray to fumigate someone's house? Or bought by the police and filled with pepper spray?"

"What would have stopped the NYPD from using those dogs against protestors instead of using them for fire and rescue like they promised?" said Will. "I know me buying an acrylic charm doesn't do much in the face of an institution that relies more on brute force than de-escalation. But I need to keep hope somehow."

"I didn't mean to shoot down your hopes and dreams It's just..." Louis finished the last of his coffee. He shouldn't drink another today. Not if he wanted to sleep on time. "It's hard to see them when I've seen a lot of people using things the wrong way for the wrong reasons."

"That's why you have me as your partner," said Will, smiling.

"Hm. Didn't think we would end up in a moral discussion about robot moths and dogs."

"Nearly came close to an argument," said Will.

"Probably," admitted Louis.

"You can make it up to me."

Louis cocked an eyebrow, thinking of all the ways he could "make it up" to Will. "Oh?"

Will grinned, so saucily that it could have been bottled and sold for barbeques. He leaned over and whispered to Louis. "Godzilla verses Mothra movie tonight? The original 1960s version?"

Not what Louis expected. But he would run with it if seeing an old monster flick would make Will happy. "Okay."

"And then maybe afterwards... you could pretend to be one of the moth fairies and me a lost explorer on an island?"

"There are fairies in a Godzilla movie?"

"You'll find out."

Of course he would.

---

You can watch Mothra vs Godzilla free on Tubi, Shout Factor, and Youtube!

[purplecuteofninjago]

[etakeh]

Pro tip!

(source)

[hauntswitch]

My biggest grievance is that we never really got a 2000's 'futuristic' redesign for K9 that would have inevitably shook the doctor who community to its core with horror and have resulted in the design being canned or reverted immediately, just like pretty much every single dalek redesign but particularly the paradigm ones. Anyway here's my design <3

Based off of numerous toy robot dogs from the last 20 years

[practically-an-x-man]

whew okay. swept the floors. tidied and vacuumed the family room. put away clean dishes. applied to 3 more jobs. put final layers of paper mache on the mask (gonna pop it tomorrow when it's dry). time for a break.

[lovely-v]

My hot take is that the scifi genre’s compassion towards robots comes from their usefulness as a (sometimes well done, sometimes problematic) metaphor for misunderstood/alienated individuals and that while robot characters can be used as a great way to create a story about finding purpose or discovering what it means to be human (ex/Data from Star Trek, Wall-E even), this is a case of fiction being able to do something that reality can’t and we should NOT be striving to make humanlike robots/AI irl because we will always end up closer to the Torment Nexus than Detroit Become Human

[dougielombax]

I really DON’T like those Boston dynamics robot dogs.

At all.

Make them go away.

[ahsoka-in-a-hood]

hoo boy, I think we're going to regret humanizing robots the way we have

[callese]

[ken-katayanagi]

HE’S A BIRD???