That could have been the rallying cry for a Russian robot that was “arrested” by police after its latest escape attempt from its laboratory. The escapee, Promobot, is designed to work in crowded spaces to assist the public with navigation and the translation of promotional materials, according to its developers.
(Image courtesy of Promobot.)
According to a Promobot spokesperson, the police were called due to concerns about the robot recording voters’ opinions on a “variety of topics for further processing and analysis by the candidate’s team.”
“Police [removed the robot] from the crowded area and even tried to handcuff him,” the spokesperson told Inverse in an email.
Technical details on Promobot are sparse, but the first version had a battery life of eight hours, movement speed of 0.5km/h, cost USD$5,000 and sold 20 units, according to the company website. The second version cost $7,000 with the same limited technical specs and sold 215 units.
In what I'm sure is pure coincidence, the latest version will be unveiled next month by Promobot Founder and CEO, Yuzhakov Alexey.
Promobot was designed for a variety of applications, including:
- Greeting visitors to a shopping center and answering their questions
- Office administration
- Acting as a hotel concierge
- Serving as a docent in a museum
For a more grounded robotics story, find out why R&D spending is expected to spike in the robotics industry until 2020.