Robotic Nation Evidence

This short, highly realistic movie shows us one vision of the robotic future of police:

Tetra Vaal

(If the movie is broken, try this page for a mirror)

The movie shows a single robot. Imagine instead hundreds of these robots policing in groups to protect one another and provide insurmountable force against the humans around them. Imagine hundreds of robots communicating instantaneously with each other through wireless networks, sharing and integrating views of the battlefield and seamlessly coordinating their activities.

One interesting anthropomorphic artifact in this movie is the fact that the robot has only two eyes. The robot is constantly turning its head to see things. That will not be the case in when real robotic police and soldiers arrive. They will have eight or ten pairs of eyes arranged around the head to provide a complete 360-degree stereoscopic view at all times. There will be no "sneaking up behind" a robotic police officer, especially with multiple robots integrating their views with each other.

The following article explains why such a future is not that far away:

Formerly arcane research gets new respect

From the article:

Robotics experts see a "perfect storm" heading their way, thanks in no small part to the human ravages of war.

Just as the constant march of technology is driving down the cost of key components, top universities in robotics are reporting major increases in federal funding, with the Defense Department the biggest spender.

The military desperately wants to reduce the number of soldiers killed by roadside bombs or surface-to-air missiles -- cheap implements of war that have felled scores in Iraq. Many in the Pentagon believe the answer lies in autonomous air, sea and land vehicles.

Also:

Technology that lets robots perceive and overcome obstacles has made unparalleled bounds largely because the cost of charge-coupled devices (the core of every camera), microprocessors and varied sensors has fallen away as rapidly as computing power and memory have expanded.

"Nobody is inventing the wheel anymore," Kara said. "The core of research that occurred over the last 10 years is driving this market intellectually and now there's a ton of money coming from the military side of the aisle."

The Pentagon, which spent $3 billion on unmanned aerial vehicles between 1991 and 1999, is expected to spend upward of $10 billion through 2010. Under a congressional mandate, the Defense Department is pushing for one-third of its ground vehicles to be unmanned by 2015.

Welcome to the Robotic Nation.