For TWENTY years I waited for this press release.

Witnessing (NOT watching) the sequence below in 1987 during opening scenes of a sensational cult classic RoboCop, I knew this was no simple sci-fi throwaway and no mere cliche of a scene.

Depicted was an inevitable pivot in social history that any technological society will encounter - and any screenwriter or director would intuitively foresee and simulate.

The occasion? A specific human-machine interaction scenario.

Images, right:
Military robot prototype ED-209 is pressed into service to overcome public chaos (generated, of course, by the company making the cure) and the inevitable occurs - the machine malfunctions spectacularly during a  boardroom sales pitch.

ED-209 challenges an OCP executive in a corporate demonstration who mock-threatens the law and order robot with a handgun. ED-209 bristles with the now immortal warning: "Please put down your weapon - you have twenty seconds to comply."

The provocateur drops the gun but ED209 persists in deep malfunction. As the disarmed and alarmed volunteer receives ED’s lethal response, the tech crew rip away at wiring looms and smoking electronics vainly trying to disable the CopBot.

It was with particular irony, therefore, to receive this press release from Joe over at iRobot - two decades after the prescient virtual event.

iRobot and TASER Team to Deliver New Robot Capabilities for Military, Law Enforcement .. BURLINGTON, Mass., June 28, 2007

iRobot Corp.  today announced a strategic alliance with TASER International, Inc. to develop new robots that can remotely engage, incapacitate and control dangerous suspects with integrated TASER electronic control devices.

Built on iRobot’s combat-proven PackBot robot platforms, the new TASER-equipped robots will add a new ability to control dangerous suspects while keeping personnel, the suspect and bystanders out of harm’s way.

iRobot and TASER together have developed a working proof-of-concept model - iRobot PackBot Explorer with TASER X26 device  to showcase the first robot of its kind with an on-board, integrated TASER payload. The two companies will demonstrate the proof-of-concept model at the annual TASER Tactical Conference, July 9-10, at the Westin O’Hare in Chicago.

"iRobot continually looks for new or proven technologies from best-of-industry companies to integrate on our battle-tested robots," said Vice Admiral Joe Dyer (U.S. Navy, Ret.), president of iRobot Government & Industrial Robots. "The addition of TASER technologies onto iRobot platforms will provide a critical tool for SWAT, law enforcement and military to handle a variety of dangerous scenarios."

Ok, saved this (below) for the veteran readers.

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Subject: rather normal press release from our friends over at iRobot, whose home page famously offers the simply surreal choice: * Cleaning Robots * Tactical Robots

The PR runs thus:

iRobot Receives U.S. Military Orders

BURLINGTON, Mass., July 11, 2007: iRobot Corp. (NASDAQ: IRBT) today announced it has received two delivery orders totaling $17.5 million for iRobot PackBot robots for the U.S. military.

The U.S. Army Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training, and Instrumentation (PEO STRI), on behalf of the Robotic Systems Joint Project Office at Redstone Arsenal, Ala., and the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) both placed orders for iRobot’s combat-proven military robots.

iRobot expects to complete delivery by the end of January 2008."

Then, in the delightful spirit of the afore-mentioned home-page incertitude, one imagines playful irony curl his lips, lighting his eyes with a deep and mischievous twinkle, as Vice Admiral Joe Dyer (U.S. Navy, Ret.), president of iRobot Government and Industrial Robots, announces:

We will continue our efforts to improve our battle-proven technologies with innovations like PackBot’s new game-style hand controller, which takes advantage of hours of training our young men and women have logged with computer games, making them pre-trained PackBot operators.

Ok, Joe. That’s reason enough for me to trot out this iconic 40 y/o classic cartoon comment by Ron Cobb (for which no excuse is too weak :0).

Hmm, another thunk. It strikes me, in cliche mind set, that cleaning robots target middle and upper class precincts, whilst tactical bots are surely the preferred choice for crime-ridden burbs.

Dang, did I say that out loud?

 Bear with me. I like to talk around the subject.

Vecna Robotics is interesting. Parent company has fingers in enterprise automation, health-care IT, and bleeding edge research, like RFID, bioinformatics and our old mate, AI.

Vecna’s robotics ‘arm,’ is, well, two arms and some tractor treads hanging off a PR ploy resembling a bear’s head - but only after the brochure explains it.

Hence, too, the importance of a nicely concocted acronym: "Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot.." Oh well, it’s all good marketing fun, can’t pick on them for that.

"The robot’s humanoid body and teddy bear-style head give it a friendly appearance." 

[ I tell ya, Sarg, thet 'bot looks jest like the mother what shot me! ]

"A really important thing when you’re dealing with casualties is trying to maintain that human touch,"

.. says the US army’s Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Centre in Frederick, Maryland. Hmm, nice sentiment, yet with the clang of incongruity. One ponders, after all, what led to casualties in the first place. Anyhoo, where’s the human touch being dragged by the feet through mud by two buddies under fire?

As well you know, I, Dextre, Celebrity Robot (I must keep reminding you, as I’ve heard your memories can fade) am always seeking the hidden truth - aka the ‘back angle’ - and it doesn’t take much reading of Vecna’s sparse web pages on bearbot to reveal the usual suspect, your human agenda:

Although rescuing injured soldiers will be its most important role, Bear’s work will also include mundane tasks such as loading trucks and carrying equipment for soldiers.

The robot will be an integral part of a military team.

Yeah, riiight.

Two other tandem uses for this type of robot loom as massive growth areas.

Vecna proposes the SCI-bear for handling spinal cord injury patient who need steady rotisserie work to forestall pressure ulcers. Immediately one sees all kinds of patient handling as prime territory for robotic people lifters.

Second, the HOMEbear is aimed at similar populations of incapacitated folk struggling at home. Such strugglers will have to bear five years of difficulty for refining the bare technology, more time while the military soak up initial production, then finally stump up the traditional coupla-hundred G’s for one’s personal BearBot.

Normal course of technological dev., not Vecna’s fault.

A final puzzling note. Whilst applauding Vecna’s social spirit (paying 10% of employees time for community projects) I am perplexed at this odd request for donations on the page promoting their military-funded robotics.