Robo-Negotiator Talks Down Armed Lunatic

By Stuart Fox Posted 11.12.2009 at 11:33 am 3 Comments

You Want My Hydraulic Fluid! Take My Hydraulic Fluid! Via OK.gov

Hostage situations are often described like explosive devices, as ticking time bombs waiting to go off. And just as bomb disposal units have robots to help with their job, now police negotiators have a bot of their own for defusing a different kind of explosive situation.

In Colorado, a heavily armed 61-year-old man had barricaded himself in his home. Afraid that the volatile suspect would shoot anyone sent in to negotiate his surrender, the police found themselves at an impasse. Then, they sent in the robot.

The police equipped a bomb disposal robot with a microphone, a camera, and speakers, and maneuvered it into the house. An operator navigated the droid to the suspect, and then began to talk him down. Eventually, the man surrendered to the robot, and was taken into police custody.

Usually, when Murphy said "dead or alive, you're coming with me", the "alive" option rarely panned out. This robocop, however, already seems to be getting better results.

[Glenwood Springs Post Independent, via The Register]

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3 Comments

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Q42

11/12/09 at 11:49 am

And WALL-E saves the day! lol

Nice to see a police robot being used for more constructive purposes than simply blowing things up (although it can be fun to watch).

Hats off to the ingenious policemen who rigged up their bot, both for their negotiating and their engineering skills!

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I AM JEDI MAN

11/12/09 at 6:31 pm

i wish i had one of those. then i could drive it around into
a crowd and go "attention! my master, the CYBORG, has just declared all of you to be his slaves! thank you." then everyone would freak out and oh gosh.

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TechnoFreakFace

11/14/09 at 4:57 pm

Would be better to have pistol inside with an X targeting overlay on the bots camera for easy targeting....plus swivel, up down head

I could make that with some duct tape, a soldering iron, pistol, wi-fi cam and RC tank :P...all of which I have...dont even need any extra programing etc. any redneck could do it

it could save the day more effectively, since wats the point of talking to loonatic....whichever way...he'll either be shot or go jail for life....which will e choose? I bet:
kill the hostages and then himself...or by the police...whichever comes first

go figure....DIY