Crowds of people stream past robot ‘Xavier’ who is patrolling the streets of Singapore on police duty, ready to issue out warnings or advisories for those who behaved in an uncivil manner.
Developed by Singapore’s Home Team Science and Technology Agency, the robot with seven eyes, or cameras, rolls along on four wheels. Two of the autonomous robots went on patrol in September, monitoring a busy shopping and residential area for “bad behaviour”.
“Do not ride or park motorcycles on paths…” flashed across the screen of Xavier when it detected an errant e-scooter on the pedestrian footpaths. The robots were designed to also be on the lookout for illegal smoking and gatherings which exceed the current COVID-19 group size limits.
Singapore authorities had said that during the trial, the robots would be used for surveillance and displaying messages to educate the public on proper behaviour and would not be used for law enforcement.
