What does it take to keep a county of fewer than 400,000 people safe? For one North Carolina district, the answer to that question includes at least one humanoid robot.
In an interview with local station WXII 12, Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough introduced his department’s newest toy: a Unitree G1. Introduced as part of a collaboration with the University of North Carolina’s School of the Arts and Center for Design Innovation, the robo-deputy is meant to stand-in for human cops during intense standoffs.
“We can send the humanoid into that same situation and accomplish the same thing: hostage negotiations, breach the door, go inside the house, do all the talking and recording,” Kimbrough told reporters during a live demonstration of the G1. “I can program it to do whatever I want it to do, hit buttons. As you saw, it started fighting, started dancing, and it talks. Any motion I want it to do, I can program it to do,” he continued — though it’s worth noting that latter statement isn’t strictly true.
Back in the real world, it’s hard to imagine these robots could write up a speeding ticket, let alone diffuse a fast-developing hostage situation. As technology goes, humanoid robots are incredibly young, with plenty of weak points both in fine motor functions and in AI language processing.
