Atlanta RoboCop — well, almost
p2pnet news view | Cool:- It isn’t RoboCop.
It isn’t even fully automated.
But it IS Bum Bot, a hand-controlled police ossifer.
And No, that isn’t a gun sticking out its front. It’s a water cannon.
The pic, on Mindfully, is from March last year, and it shows Atlanta, Georgia, bar owner Rufus Terrill with the unit, a “300-pound, waist-high robot marked ‘SECURITY’,” as USA Today described it when it first made its appearance.
In 2009, Bum Bot is still around, and so is Terrill, who’s now an Atlanta mayoral candidate, says Wired.
Said the USA Today story in 2008 »»»
Terrill bought the bar four years ago, plowing his profit from selling an apartment complex into the smoky dive. He named it O’Terrill’s, gave it an Irish theme and decorated it with knickknacks he and his wife, Linda, had lying around.
At first, he walked around, indoors and out, with an assault rifle on his shoulder to scare away vagrants, but police told him to put away the gun. Then he used a spotlight. But the bar was still being vandalized, and guns were stuck in his face several times.
His wife suggested a robot might fit the bill.
Now, people living in Terrill’s neighbourhood will vote for him, or …
USA Today – Homemade ‘Bum Bot’ plays the sheriff in Atlanta, April 22, 2008
Wired – ‘Bum Bot’ Robot Plays Sheriff on the Streets of Atlanta, August 17, 2009
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August 18th, 2009 at 10:23 am
That’s a band-aid, a poor one as well, to a real problem the city should be focused on addressing!