First there was the BigDog robot story that had technophobes quaking in their boots. Now, the so-called “Bum Bot” is on patrol in Atlanta:

That is what Rufus Terrill calls the rolling, remote-controlled invention he uses to flush out the prostitutes and pushers who gather near his Atlanta bar, which is two blocks from the city’s largest and most controversial homeless shelter.

The Bum Bot, like the homeless people it polices, is a creature of hand-me-downs. The wheels are from one of those scooters for the elderly; the PA system is a walkie-talkie wired to a home-alarm speaker. The rotating turret is an old Cajun meat smoker.

The cylindrical smoker gives the Bum Bot its R2D2-ish profile. But its black armor - made of exercise mats - and the stenciled letters spelling out SECURITY lend it a menacing air.

An infrared camera and a 2 million-candlepower spotlight are mounted on the turret under a homemade cannon, which squirts jets of cold water at up to 200 pounds per square inch.

Using a twin-joystick remote, Terrill usually sends his robot up the street to the parking lot of a day care center, where a sketchy, drug-dealing crowd congregates after dark. The police sometimes round them up, Terrill says, but soon, it seems, they are back on the street.

Anybody else disappointed his last name wasn’t Tyrell instead of Terrill? Read more here and here.

This entry was posted on March 28, 2008 at 10:40 am and is filed under robots. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.