A sophisticated remote operated crime-busting robot could soon be found patrolling the streets.
Researchers at Florida International University have come up with a novel new way to enable disabled police officers and military personnel to continue serving as patrol officers.
The robot, which has been nicknamed TeleBot, is a life size humanoid machine that can be controlled remotely through a sophisticated telepresence system which even enables the operator to see everything that the robot sees.
"This kind of project requires a lot of hard work, technical expertise and resources," said Discovery Lab director Jong-Hoon Kim. "We had to build everything from scratch."
Weighing in at 75 pounds and measuring 6ft in height the TeleBot is certainly no pushover.
"What impresses me most about the TeleBot prototype is that most of the work was performed by undergraduate students operating under very tight budget and time constraints," said Jeremy Robins, a US Navy Reserves lieutenant commander who helped to fund the project.