Daft ideas: Robot Theropod Dinosaur Guards or Non-android Robot Guards (NARGs © 2014)

A few robot deinonychus or raptors with their unique razor-sharp talon on each foot, rows of sharp teeth, clawed hands, would make formidable guards or guard dogs. How would you prevent being attacked by your own guard robots though? Voice and face recognition software of a very advanced kind is de rigeur but you need more than this to protect yourself, family and friends, or some innocent making a delivery. The therobot © can be left on autopilot (mode 1) in which it uses various sensors (motion, infrared, sound, pressure etc.) to detect any intruders – the neighbour’s cat mustn’t become its prey, so you switch to attack mode (mode 2) only on your command (voice or remote control). Can it recognize a gun, rifle, knife, hatchet, club in its opponents’ hands? It should be able to. Your robot is well armoured so that it can resist a hail of bullets of various calibers, knife thrusts through chinks in its armour are not possible – its skin is virtually seamless.

But what would law enforcement think of such lethal guard dogs? Can they be programmed to mete out proportionate violence? Can they issue a warning before attacking? Of course, instead of the usual ‘Beware-of-the-Dog’ sign on the gate there would be ‘Beware of Dinosaur’ and a nice little picture, in red, of a raptor with the important detail of its massive sickle-shaped claw on its feet.

Though, the idea of a pack of fast, deadly, lithe dromaeobots © silently patrolling in the garden is very appealing, we need only watch the movie ‘Red Planet’ (2000) with Val Kilmer, to see that equipping a robot with lethal weapons is a bad idea. It could turn on you due to a malfunction – yikes!

Note 1: The sophisticated electronics of a Raptorbot © is enclosed in a Faraday cage so protecting it from EMP (electromagnetic pulse) – a useful feature.

Note 2: The robots are modelled on the Dromaeosauridae group of theropods. This includes the famous velociraptor. See http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/saurischia/dromaeosauridae.html