“Singapore’s Home Team Science and Technology Agency (HTX) roving robot has hit the streets of Toa Payoh Central as part of a trial to support public officers in enhancing public health and safety.” (ZDNet, 8 September 2021) This is reported by the magazine ZDNet. “The robot, named Xavier, was jointly developed by HTX and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research. It is fitted with sensors for autonomous navigation, a 360-degree video feed to the command and control centre, real-time sensing and analysis, and an interactive dashboard where public officers can receive real-time information from and be able to monitor and control multiple robots simultaneously.” (ZDNet, 8 September 2021) Xavier is one of many security robots deployed around the world. Widely known are K3 and K5 from Knightscope. REEM is also used as a policeman and even costumed like a policeman – a case of Robot Enhancement. Whether the people of Singapore will accept security robots remains to be seen.
BY OLIVER BENDEL
