Surprise, expectation and curiosity on the part of many of the people who this afternoon met a new 'agent' of the Malaga Local Police on Larios Street. It does not yet have a name, but the robot dog equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) has made its first 'patrol' today through the heart of the city to demonstrate everything it can contribute to citizen security: it walks forwards and backwards, It also has movement to the sides, emits previously recorded sounds, can climb stairs and records with its cameras and is capable of analyzing and making decisions in situations of citizen insecurity, such as the movement of a skateboard (as could be seen when passing a young man on one of them in the Plaza de la Constitución) and even a case of robbery or physical assault.
In the near future, robot dogs will be another agent of the Local Police of Malaga and other cities. Or they will help the Spanish Army in emergency situations. Robotics takes a step forward with the introduction of artificial intelligence in these devices, which will allow them to make them totally autonomous.
The University of Malaga, through the Institute of Technology and Software Engineering (ITIS), in collaboration with the Defense and Security Unit of Telefónica and the Spanish SME ALYSIS, is developing this quadruped robot, within a research project that has with financing from European Next Generation funds.
The vice-rector for Research and Dissemination of the University of Malaga, Antonio Morales; the Councilor for Security of the City Council of the capital, Avelino Barrionuevo; and the director of ITIS, Pedro Merino, have presented this research project to society.
Antonio Morales has pointed out that this presentation shows the great human capital that exists at the University of Malaga dedicated to research. This police robot, they have pointed out, will support and help the Local Police in their surveillance tasks. “It will never replace the human factor, which is essential,” Avelino Barrionuevo pointed out.
The mechanical part of the robot has been manufactured by a specialized company, Alisys, and the UMA Institute of Technology and Software Engineering develops the entire control system, batteries, communications, video cameras and their interaction with artificial intelligence. In this way, Pedro Merino assures that the possibilities of its industrial production “are enormous”, with a manufacturing cost estimated at 200,000 euros per unit. “Due to technology we could put it on the street right now, another issue is the interest of the administrations,” he said. Telefónica is the digital 'partner' of this project, reported Ana Rodríguez, head of Innovation at Telefónica Security Engineering, since it has been in charge of deploying the entire 5G network in the center of Malaga.
In addition to being a collaborator in citizen patrol tasks, the robot dog also has a prominent role in the military field, as is being demonstrated in the current war in Ukraine, where drones (which are still robots) and ground robots It has an increasingly greater presence in military actions.
European funds to develop 5G
In mid-2022, the UMA Institute of Software Technology and Engineering obtained a significant economic injection from the European Union, which financed its project '5G+Tactile: Deterministic communications for tactile internet over B5G with digital twins' with 4 million euros. Thanks to these European funds, the quadruped robot project is being developed, they are also working on the connected and autonomous car or on a more sustainable agriculture project with the CSIC on the farm they share in La Mayora. In addition, it has also served to deploy the 5G network in the city center.
About 20 UMA professors and another 20 engineers or doctoral students have participated in the robot-dog prototype and work has been done for almost two years. This Tuesday's test will be followed by others in the coming months. At the same time, members of the Local Police will receive practical training so that, in the near future, the presence of robot dogs on the streets of the center will be a reality.
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