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Ed Yeates reporting Terrorists beware! A new breed of robots is looking for what you're trying to hide - and will do whatever is needed to seek it out.
The Israeli Government is already buying the amazing machines from a Utah company in Logan.
If you're trying to hide a weapon or a bomb, you don't want to see this guy coming around the corner. While it has no human driver, the machine is controlled by a human master a safe distance away who sees exactly what the robot sees.
Bret Turpin/ Engineer, Autonomous Solutions: "With the machine of course, you basically remove the human factor from it, which from a safety standpoint, that's priceless."
Logan-based Autonomous Solutions demonstrated for Eyewitness News. Here, the robot does very little - just lifting the truck and gently removing a bag.
But with other commands - much more aggression! This time the robot slides the car out of its parking stall - away from other vehicles. In a real scenario, the car would be taken some distance away.
With all kinds of tools front and rear, it tears the car apart - looking for an explosive device. If it blows up - no one is hurt. If not, the machine keeps going and going until it gets what it's looking for.
After all the evaluation, the inspection, the removal of suspicious objects, what's left of the car is dragged away.
And it's not just vehicles. There's a tool for reaming through concrete, taking the robots into buildings that have already blown up to search for other explosives. The Israeli Police liked what they saw.
"They've bought six so far. We did one prototype and five production units. We've shipped two so far and we have four ready to go on the truck tomorrow."
Other prospective buyers - the Israeli military and our own U.S. Navy.
These are only the first generation. From here, the robots only get better with more tools - more artificial intelligence.
Eventually, soldiers and police stationed a long distance away will be able to maneuver robots like these by just moving their fingers or hands.
