Today, it takes the form of a cartoon-like dog named Rity, developed at the Robot Intelligence Technology (RIT) Laboratory, at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).

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Colin Angle, CEO of iRobot says a robot is something that uses sensors to perceive information to understand the world and then uses artificial intelligence to process what it saw, then applies some kind of physical actuation in its environment.

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Since the robot could hang out in the dark, it could conceivably be equipped with a microphone or tracking system to gather intelligence for longer investigations, rather than one-time interdictions.

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