Real-Life 'RoboCop' May Be Coming to a Street Near You

A bullet-shaped robot that stands about 5 feet (1.5 meters) tall, the K5 "security guard" looks a lot like the droid R2-D2 from the "Star Wars" films. And it may be able to help stop crimes before they happen.

Credit: Knightscope

Robot security guards are staples of most futuristic sci-fi movies, video games and TV shows. They exist in real life as well, though the sight of a security robot patrolling the streets is far from common.

The K5 Beta, a just-unveiled prototype from California-based company Knightscope, might change all that.

A bullet-shaped robot that stands about 5 feet (1.5 meters) tall, the K5 looks a lot like the droid R2-D2 from the "Star Wars" films. The K5 might not have all the features of its counterpart from a galaxy far, far away. But what it does have, Knightscope representatives said, is an onboard sensor array that can see, hear, touch and smell its surroundings. [5 Reasons to Fear Robots]

The K5 can also combine that sensory data with "existing raw business, government and crowdsourced social data sets, and subsequently assigns an alert level that determines when a business, community or authorities should be notified of a concern," according to Knightscope's press release.

In other words, the K5 is supposed to combine its observations with public data on the social and financial statistics of its surroundings, and use the information to predict if, when and where a crime is likely to occur.

If the K5 does detect that an "incident" is occurring, it makes all of its sensor data publicly available via Wi-Fi, "to allow the entire community to review the information transparently and contribute additional relevant, real-time information," Knightscope representatives said.

Crowdsourced crime investigations have their pros and cons, as anyone who followed the immediate aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombingknows well. Using Twitter, Boston residents were able to inform others about the events surrounding the attack and help identify the alleged bomber, but not before an innocent person was publicly named as a suspect. Presumably, the K5's software will be able to sift through crowdsourced data to find the most valuable information.

The company was founded in response to another deadly incident that gained national attention: the shooting massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in December 2012. 

"Our long-term goal is to show that, with a combination of hardware, software and community involvement, we will, together, be able to cut crime," Knightscope CEO William Santana Li said in a statement.

Many people aren't comfortable with the idea of human police officers carrying video cameras or amassing a private database of footage, so it's unlikely that the public would approve of camera-toting robots. The K5's ability to make its collected data publicly available is intended, in part, to assuage those concerns, as Li told The New York Times. The idea is that people will feel more comfortable if the data the K5 collects is in everyone's hands, and not just the police or a private group.

What's more, Knightscope representatives said the K5 will be able to save money. The robot operates at a cost of about $6.25 per hour, the New York Times reports — more than a dollar below the U.S. minimum hourly wage.

How 'Mantabot' Robot Fish Could Help Navy Missions

A swimming robot shaped like a ray fish could do military scouting or scientific surveys.

Credit: University of Virginia

Holy robot fish, Batman! A swimming "Mantabot" drone funded by the U.S. Navy could give even the Dark Knight his first experience of gadget envy.

Mantabot has a plastic body and silicone fins modeled directly on the cow-nosed ray — a cousin of manta rays and stingrays in the "batoid" ray fish family. Smaller or larger versions of the robot could swim effortlessly through the oceans as they run U.S. military reconnaissance missions or conduct scientific surveys of the underwater world.

"We are studying a creature to understand how it is able to swim so beautifully, and we are hoping to improve upon it," said Hilary Bart-Smith, a mechanical and aerospace engineer at the University of Virginia. "We are learning from nature, but we also are innovating; trying to move beyond emulation."

Bart-Smith's lab built the robot to mimic the nearly silent flaps of a ray's winglike fins as it swims or glides through the water. They first began by studying living rays in the ocean and in the lab, as well as dissecting dead specimens to understand how nature engineered their bodies.

Such rays can accelerate or hold position while using relatively little energy — an inspiration for making underwater drones that can stay out at sea for long periods without refueling or recharging.

Researchers built Mantabot's flexible silicone wings so that they are able to change shape during swimming sessions by expanding or retracting rods and cables. The robot's plastic body holds the main electronics and battery.

Mantabot could lead to bigger or smaller underwater drones capable of carrying equipment for military or commercial purposes. It could also help monitor water conditions and marine life, or even investigate oil spills or track ocean pollutants.

The wide array of possibilities shows up in Mantabot's diverse funding sources — the Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. The research team hails from the University of Virginia, Princeton University, the University of California-Los Angeles and West Chester University of Pennsylvania.

As a bonus, Mantabot's "bio-inspired" shape makes it fit in easily with other ocean creatures without unnatural disturbances. But the bio-mimicry may cut both ways if hammerhead or bull sharks mistake Mantabot for a real-life meal.

Still, the possibility of military robots becoming shark food has not stopped the Office of Naval Research from funding other naturally shaped underwater drones such as robot jellyfish.

Beetles' Sticky Feet Lay Groundwork for Undersea Robots

A ladybug walks underwater up a wall. Its sticky feet have inspired an artificial version that could help underwater robots.

Credit: Japan's National Institute for Materials Science

Tomorrow's robots could climb up submerged walls in the manner of an underwater Spider-Man by using a gripper design found in beetles.

A number of beetle species can walk straight up smooth, dry plant leaves due to sticky adhesive-covered hair-like structures known as setae at the tips of their legs. Researchers analyzing ladybugs and a leaf beetle (Gastrophysa viridula) unexpectedly discovered that those insects also could use these setae to walk underwater.

To better understand how, scientists let specimens walk down sticks into trays of water. The researchers saw air bubbles trapped between the beetles' setae — bubbles that helped keep the adhesive-covered setae dry and sticky.

The investigators designed an artificial material that mimicked these beetle grippers — a silicone rubber pad covered with silicone rubber bristles about one-tenth of an inch high (2.4 millimeters), with tips about one-hundredth of an inch wide (0.2 mm). They used these pads to stick a plastic toy bulldozer onto the side of a wall underwater.

Even when these artificial grippers were not covered with glue, they were sticky underwater. The air bubbles themselves acted as an adhesive through capillary action, the same phenomenon by which liquids flow up paper towels.

This research could lead to "the application of adhesive devices for robots in the future," researcher Naoe Hosoda of Japan's National Institute for Material Science told InnovationNewsDaily.