Put the K5 Robot in a Proper Role for Public Safety

Hello, everyone!

My topic today is “Put the K5 Robot in a Proper Role for Public Safety”. I guess many of you must have seen at least one or two films about robots. Who have ever seen the film I, Robot (2004) directed by the Australian director Alex Proyas? I have seen it. Frankly speaking, the revolting NS-5 robots frightened me for many years. It impresses me so deeply that I often doubt the safety and reliability of every intelligent machine, including the K5 robot. It was designed by the Knightscope Inc. in 2013 for public safety. According to John Koetsier, “the K5 is an autonomous security robot with 360-degree high-definition vision, laser-based 3D mapping technology”, “radiation, chemical, and biological agent detectors, night vision, and thermal imaging capabilities to detect the warm bodies of puny humans”. (Koetsier) The K5 not only can figure out its exact location, but also can charge itself independently. It can also be controlled remotely by people. With the aid of sensors, K5 can generate a lot of real-time data for the environment. Through a comprehensive analysis of the data collected, K5 will react accordingly to prevent crimes. However, lack of self-defense ability, the machine can also be used by criminals by reprogramming. Internal errors or damages may cause unpredictable results. Moreover, too much dependence on the machine may lower the self-prevention consciousness of people.

Since K5 was made by people, it can also be changed by people. It is only a machine. It only works as it was preprogrammed and with limited adjusting abilities. It can’t jump over any obstacles or fly. The K5 robot communicates with the other robots or the human operators by WiFi or other wireless data networks. But some hackers can use their software to hijack other unmanned machines with their own drones. So the possibilities of modification for other purposes can’t be excluded. Another fatal point is, the power of K5 is supplied by batteries and needs to be recharged at intervals. No power, then K5 won’t work. The evils have many possible chances to take over the robot. Consequently, we may face more insecurity issues.

K5 is a machine consisting of many different components. So, internal errors or damages are inevitable in the use since every part has its own lifespan. Any failure may cause unpredictable results, such as high maintenance costs, inconvenience, or dangers, etc. “A Swedish report stated that in Sweden there were 36 accidents involving robots that caused human injury during the period 1979 to 1983. Furthermore, Japanese findings indicate that 8% of persons working with robots have been injured, and as many as 36% of them have experienced an accident of some sort.” (Dhillon, 5) The potential risks exist and may cause the robot to unsafe conditions, or even to become the new enemies of our human.

The last but not the least, too much dependence on the machine K5 may lower the self-prevention consciousness of people. Just like the extensive use of computers, the more we use, the more we feel we can’t live or work without them. Computers is an indispensable part of our life and work now. If all computers suddenly disappeared one day, can you imagine then what the world would be? Similarly, it will do no good if we all rely on the K5 robot for our public safety. K5 is not perfect and can’t do all for us. It is still a good choice for us to protect ourselves by every possible method.

To conclude, we need to put the K5 robot in a proper role regarding public safety. Because criminals can also use the machine by reprogramming and internal errors or damages may cause unpredictable results. Besides that, too much dependence on the machine may lower the self-prevention consciousness of people. That’s all I want to address today. Thanks for listening!