In the “cool” department, this UGV (Unnamed Gravy Van? Actually, it’s Unmanned Ground Vehicle) named “Guardian” and made by G-nius of the US makes its rounds in areas with the need for perimeter security. The fun thing about this autonomous robot is that it can actually go off-road when the need arises, unlike other delicate, straight-from-the-lab robots.

In this case, autonomy is possible through the use of “GPS and decision-making skills”, which could probably mean a predictive software governed by a set of rules regarding terrain and obstacle avoidance, and of course identification. That’s frankly a sticking point for me and these types of robots – how will the software know f the “perpetrator” is actually hostile or not? Will it be able to identify between a trespassing vehicle and a garbage dumpster? Regardless, the machine is designed to perform “routine” duties like patrolling, but can also react to “unexpected” events – although it wasn’t specified what or how.

                                             A few press shots from the company's website.

Able to accommodate multiple types of payload, this UGV can be adapted to multiple roles, limited only to the programming and capability of the predictive and persistent navigation even with a loss of GPS signal. “Weather impervious panoramic artificial imaging, video compression, data fusion and wireless commo” are just some of the functions in this vehicle, with the capability to interdict and to react to unauthorized entry into the facility it is guarding.

It would be interesting to know whether it can recharge / refuel / reload itself, like an oversized Aibo going back to its charge socket for the night, and what internals it uses, such as engine, armor type, or maybe even the computing power equivalent that it carries. No details are forthcoming, but I wouldn’t mind seeing one of these in the country. Just not too close to the planes / employees / buildings / passengers, at least not until we’re sure how capable it is in handling those “unexpected” events. Thanks to Engadget and Crave.