As the current Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic is yet to show signs of slowing down, the whole world has been restricted to their homes in order to curb the spread of the deadly disease. The government of most countries, have announced a mandatory lockdown that prevents citizens going out of their homes. However, there are some people that are naturally stubborn, decides to go on with their normal way of living. Thus, so as to prevent this, the law enforcement agents in Tunisia have deployed a police robot for patrolling the streets of Tunis, the capital of the country.
Police Robot Used To Prevents Roaming In The Streets Of Tunisia
The Interior Ministry of Tunisia has deployed a lot of these patrolling robots known as PGuard. These black-coloured PGuards are essentially the official employees of the Police force. When they see a citizen in a deserted street, it rolls up to them to ask them why are they out on the streets.
These robots are manufactured by a Sousse-based company, Enova Robotics. Before the pandemic, Enova Robotics have been working for many private firms, according to the Chief Cales Officer, Radouhane Ben Farhat. Aside producing the PGuards, the company also manufactures robots for the healthcare industry, similar to Diligent Robots’ Moxi.
How PGuard Police Robot Works
The PGuard Police robot makes use of a thermal-imaging camera and LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology to perform its duty. It is also equipped with loud-speakers and microphones to enable communication between the citizens and the Police Department.ÂÂ
Below is a video shared by the Interior Ministry of the country on Facebook to showcase the PGuard. In the video, the PGuard can be seen stopping many of the citizens to query the reason for their movement on the streets. The robot is basically controlled by Police personnel from the Control Room.ÂÂ
When someone is caught by the robot, the Police personnel can question through the loud-speaker and hear the citizens through the microphone attached to the robot. They can tell the citizens to show their IDs and the proper documents to prove their purpose of going out.
We have seen the rise of robots in healthcare sectors and now these friendly machines are taking on law enforcing jobs. It is quite an efficient effort by the country as robots cannot get infected by the Coronavirus and hence cannot spread it. So, in this time of compulsory social distancing, the PGuard is at service to lessen physical human interactions.
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