The wondering bot gets stuck in the middle of the road as its batteries run out. Image from Promobot Labs.
A robot revolution is one of those nightmare scenarios that is prevalent in science fiction and pop culture. So when a stray robot takes to the streets on its own, it causes quite the stir.
According to Gizmodo, the robot in question is called Promobot V2 from Promobot Labs in Russia. The robot is designed to navigate crowds, give directions, answer general questions, and translate material. Basically a mechanical helping hand for a human in need. It also has built-in speakers that can be used for broadcasting promotional messages.
The robot apparently wandered off on its own for around 40 minutes and ended up in the middle of the road where its batteries ran dry. A bewildered police officer investigated the commotion until a lab member intervened.
It is being speculated that the incident is actually a staged stunt by Promobot Labs. A carefully curated blog post over at the company’s website seems to corroborate this theory.
Whether it was something done to get attention or the blog post was a cover-up for an actual robot malfunction ala Short Circuit or Chappy, it’s interesting to see how this could influence robot development down the road. Alfred Bayle