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ED-209 Patrols University
Joel writes: "A security robot called Marvin is patrolling the corridors of Waikato University (New Zealand). Science students at the university's mechatronics laboratory built the 1.5m-high Machine, which runs on two 12-volt car batteries and can patrol the university corridors at up to 35 km/h."
Statement 1 + 2: They are planning to receive GPS signal inside a building. I will be quite interested about how they implement this. I do not have a GPS device, but I strongly doubt whether the signal can penetrate through....
I'd like to see this bot go up against GraffitiWriter.
spawn_of_yog_sothoth
Ah, the old "no one could be that crazy/stupid/fanatic" line of thinking. I live a rather sheltered life, and even I know better than that. There's always someone crazy enough.
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As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
I believe that's the TURING test, not the turning test
Well.. I wouldn't say "working on" as these suckers are quite real, and I think your friends will find it quite operational. It's call THEL, Tactical High Energy Laser. See information here: http://www.smdc.army.mil/FactSheets/THEL.html
Run. I like water. Push My rutabaga.
At the University of Twente there has been a robot called Marvin as long as I can remember. There seem to be a lot of resemblances between the two. :)
"Our" Marvin just doesn't have a function whatsoever
The other Marvin
"We are no longer reinventing the wheel, we are starting to create. But Marvin will soon be learning for himself, so he doesn't need his creator. We just have to decide the level to which you want to get rid of humans"
Ah! Get rid of humans? Why, this is a threat to Mother Earth! They obviously do not know what they are doing, they are foolishly tampering with the delicate balances of nature! I'm sure if something goes wrong, they won't have to means to make it right. Is this where the eco-terrorists step in?
Hey, makes about as much sense as torching car dealerships (which is to mean: none)
They won't get it work - even with AGPS, which can work indoors. The position estimate wouldn't be accurate enough to rely on indoor navigation. It could be used only to get rough estimation of position and then use other methods to keep from hitting obstacles.
Microsoft? Is that some kind of a toilet paper?
Marvin the Paranoid Android on patrol... he'll get the robbers so melancholy and depressed they'll just go turn themselves in.
Wah!
Meat, perhaps?
Only the dead have seen the end of war.
He has this pain in all the diodes down his left side. They've tried replacing them, you know, but it hasn't helped.
and he's worked out that if he sticks his right arm in his left ear he can electrocute himself. Fatally.
:)
But seriously, hasn't the DoD been using robots like this for surveilance in Government buildings? I recall when I was working for the US Army Corps of Engineers that in some buildings there were painted tracks on the floor that were used as "tracks" by both mail delivery robots and robots that were essentially mobile surveillance cameras. It's sounds like Marvin is a bit more autonomous (since he uses GPS rather than a fixed painted track), but it still sounds like essentially the same idea.
If I could only live my life with my threshold at 4...
But I do agree with you, security cameras are still best... for the time being.
Why use GPS at all, you know the starting point of the robot on the floor plan, you know how far it has travelled in each direction, why not deduce the position from that rather than using some over expensive, over complicated stuff...
Gaz
Yup....as in "Put down your weapon. You have 20 seconds to comply."
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Moderator's essentials
Your coffee is inadequate, I am now authorized to throw it in your face, then shoot you.
Someone set us up the bomb, so shine we are!
But this one is almost thinking like a human and is being configured by human brainwaves as we speak (just read the story). Not many years from now, it'll have to leave the university to discover the world on its own. By it's 20th birthday, it'll have found its mother. From then it's only 5 years with video scenes of training w/hip background music and arming itself with submarine guns, before it can exterminate the whole family in order to be loved by Mother alone. Looking forward to it.
- Steeltoe
http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/
The rest comes as a word macro...
Use The Source, Luke!
<snip>
#define idle mopping_floor
<snip>
Use The Source, Luke!
Dale Carnegie (the guy walking beside the robot in the picture) used to be my 1st year electronics lecturer... If you're ever in one of his classes, wear a Pink Floyd tshirt to avoid getting asked hard questions. :)
Now why didnt I major in electronics?
This would've been moderately amusing had it lead to some kinda gay Ed 209 - RoboCop fanfic. Instead it was just some crappy story.
Last night I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I'll never know.
the publications link has a list of Master Theses which seem to be part of the project - e.g. "Laser Range Finding for an Autonomouss Mobile Security Device"
I agree. The article over-hypes the whole thing a bit. My favorite excerpts:
"[the robot] is not far from thinking like a human"
"But Marvin will soon be learning for himself, so he doesn't need his creator"
"His voice recognition will be advanced, so that he accepts commands only from his creators."
"Once Marvin is completely functional his skills can be applied to anything."
Yeah right. They're not even as closely related to each other as man is to the chipanzee.
When was the last time you flirted with a chimp?
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Slagborr
I don't think, when referring to a "laser dazzler," I would use the term "weapon" in the same sentence. A bright flashlight is not a weapon. It's more along the lines of a spike strip for people. But not a weapon.. Anyway, that's just my opinion..
The streets shall flow with the blood of the Guberminky.
Just after that bit,we see Zaphod after the Total Perspective Vortex. I always thought that was a metaphor for LSD!
Is you handheld GPS unit 1.5 metres high?
Remind me never to go near a computer there.
Step 2: give robot the ability to learn and adapt, sensors to detect intruders and communications equipment to contact backup (ie campus rent-a-cops with whistles)
Step 3: strap a frickin' laser beam to the robot (or other energy-based weapon systems)
Step 4: run away screaming "why god? why?" when robot goes berzerk and mows down an entire class of "intruders" after straying too close to the water fountain and shorting itself out.
I'm just kidding, a patrolling robot is cool, it frees up a normal guard from having to walk the same hallways all the time.
But doesnt it look really unstable? one kick and that thing is helpless on the floor calling for help because it's "fallen and can't get up". I'm all in favor of a smaller, tank-based design.
Science students huh? I kinda doubt that... read the hitchhikers guide again on who built that fellow...
ED-209 (the real one from Robocop) was cool!!! I remember making a lego model of it, it was almost in a comparable scale to minifigs (well it was actually twice as tall as a minifig), I managed to construct moveable arms on it too.. hehe "ED-209!!".. Ah nostalgia..
What time is it/will be over there? Check with my iPhone app!
Big Whoop about the robot thing. Michigan State University's engineering building has had a robot touring it's halls since I started going there (1995). Of course it's better now and moves around by itself. I don't think it had the job of security, but it was cool, especially since it runs linux!
Anywho, I have to leave for work now. The grammar nazi has a busy day ahead of him.
Keeping
The police wouldn't arrive. Instead, Marvin would convince the robber to blow up the supports for the ground beneath his feet. Then the hallway would give way and the robber would plummet into the basement. When the police arrived, the entire building would be missing, but as long as our hero exits via the office window, then all is well.
Keeping
"We are no longer reinventing the wheel, we are starting to create. But Marvin will soon be learning for himself, so he doesn't need his creator. We just have to decide the level to which you want to get rid of humans."
"Get Rid of Humans" is just the kind of thing that makes me worry. I just wish they would have rephrased this bit...
Viv
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Viv
Gmail invites for ip
See all that stuff inside, Homer? That's why your robot didn't work!
Just watch out for flash photography...
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
Yes! I can see it now...
ED: "You have two seconds to put down the pot"
Student: "But, man, like, duh"
ED: "One."
Student: "Ok, ok, it's done."
ED: "Zero. (sound of guns spinning up)"
Enough kiwi hunting for today. Maybe some other slashdotter can find more info, I'm giving up.
Ron Obvious
Go buy some survellience cameras from the Tampa Bay Police if you want to know that sort of thing!
Ron Obvious
As in, how to win friends and influence people? At 35 km/h?
Another question: Anyone got a link to the people doing this research to find out if this thing is more than a toy? I mean, we had an automated post-cart at the company I used to work at in the 80's... Is this really much more? I've found the URL for the Univ. where this supposedly was developed: http://www.waikato.ac.nz/, but, although they have a search page, I've yet to find any mention of their "mechatronic lab" or this project --- but then, I have only begun to search...
Ron Obvious
At first I didn't even see the typo. I thought going straight was some reference to the fact that Turing was gay.
My mistake.
If voting could really change the system, it would be against the law.
here's a good story about an ED-209.
--
"I'm not downloaded, I'm just loaded and down"
Compare:
Marvin the Martian:
http://www.angelfire.com/pa/lkmarvin/
Marvin of Hitchhiker's Guide:
http://www.jeffbots.com/marvin.html
Taking stuff apart since 1969 (TM)
"Get lost geek"
Geek turns to second geek.
"Did marvin at leask get an upskirt shot?"
"Ya..... heheh.... coool"
Unless they have a cold. Den bwe are sqwood.
But Marvin will soon be learning for himself, so he doesn't need his creator. We just have to decide the level to which you want to get rid of humans.
...
:)
I feel sorry for the temp. cleaner who takes over the regular persons job
STOP- INTRUDER
Hey mechanical dude, I'm just filling in for
Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate! [ZAP]
Big pile of ashes left for the supervisor to sort out the next day.
I'll think of a funny sig later on
Aww man, it uses preprocessor directives? Lame. :)
As Jon Stewart said on the Daily Show about a similar robot, "it can be an effective security robot/killing machine, as long as you don't kick it over or throw a blanket on top of it." :)
Yet another post to an article that was obviously intended to be read by people whose VCR clocks flash "12:00" at them.
"Hey Maw, thur gonna use them new fangled neural networks on that robot!"
How about sticking to links for people who hack into their TIVOs and put extra drives in them so that they can record all of their favorite shows and then watch them on their laptop via an 802.11 connection from the hammock in the backyard.
Well I'm sure it couldn't pass the turning test, and it will probably identify inflatable dolls in dorm rooms as intruders.
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Insert Witty Remark Here ===>____________________________
Even if it is used for surveillance, it is cool... Though a nicer use would be serving coffee and sharpening pencils and photo copying. Robots should serve humans, not spy on them and hate then (us) :-)
Find nice cocktail recipes @ www.spitzy.net
I dont think I need anyone running around the halls at 35 k/h, especially a heavy robot. But I guess that's ok. I've been more afraid of other unwieldy college floormates that could fall and by their sheer weight hurt people. I supposed something designed to do just that deserves a slashdot post. Maybe I missed the point of the article, but I think that this robot needs something important to do besides roam the halls. Get a hall pass.
Problem is that the vending machines don't have any mechanism for seeing (yet).
http://www.themeparks.ie
The batteries will hardly last more than a few months, though, wouldn't you think?
http://www.themeparks.ie
What do you feed robots? What do they like to drink?
http://www.themeparks.ie
...was the codenumber of the robot in Robocop, no?
http://www.themeparks.ie
Exactly, this is what i was thinking... How does the GPS get inside... But then it came to me...
MultiPath.
You see, its quite possible that they set up reflectors by every window and door to deflect GPS signals down the hallways and corridors. Since they know where all the reflectors are, they can now create thier own processing software to calulate with the mulltipath.
Hmm.. Maybe in my dreams.
Being called a dork on Slashdot must be like being called the retard in special ed.
Yes you are right, GPS does measure the phase and time shift. But the GPS can only determine if the position is lousy if it has something to compare to. If you were to get the timing from only one satellite, the GPS would not know if it were multipath or not, but when compared and calc'd with other satellite timings, then the GPS can determine which ones are worse or better then the others. Hence why 3 satellites in view will in theory give you a calc'ed fix, but a lousy one at that.
But now onto something else, I was kinda joking around with the previous comment, but now you got me thinking... Just, what if there were recievers recording data and reflecting signals down the hallways, one could then recieve RTK data from three or more recievers at different window locations.
One could then calc accurate possitions of the window locations. Since one then knows the phase and timing shifts at the reflection points, one could record data off the multipath and create custom calc's to determine the phase and time between current location and the reflection points.
Now if this were are all possible, it would require a shit load of recievers at windows all over the place. Basically I'm thinking out of my ass here, but i am having fun doing it.
Being called a dork on Slashdot must be like being called the retard in special ed.
Well, lots of stuff on MARVIN out here, the news article really didn't convey much real info. As one of MARVIN's creators, here some tech stuff on him (i) powered by 2 lead acid batteries for a 24 V system (ii) processor is a Celeron 533, but will be upgraded as requirements expand (iii) is equipped with a 3D laser range finder developed in-house (iv) will NOT be relying on GPS for indoor navigation, this came about from me trying to explain to the reporter the difference between absolute and relative positioning systems (v) has a wireless LAN card for remote diagnostics and over-rides (vi) stands about 1.6m high, will be extended to 1.7m as the head will be mounted on a shaft from a stepper motor (vii) weighs about 75-80 kg, almost all of which is located near the bottom, making for a very low centre of gravity, and is very difficult to tip over (viii) is soon to be equipped with arms for elevator operation and simple manipulation, plus have the ability to locate its own recharging point so that it can recharge itself. (ix) the comment about the Pink Floyd sweatshirt is true (x) apologies I haven't put the tech info on the web, we have a heap of projects that should be there including subs, helicopters, caterpillar tracked robots etc. I'll try to see to this soon.
*squeal*
ARE YOU BOYS COOKING UP THERE
*pop*
"No..."
*click, whirr*
ARE YOU BUILDING AN INTEROCITER
"NO!"
>inventory
You have:
a bathrobe
a screwdriver
tea
no tea
>show Marvin tea and no tea
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
I'm more concerned about the Dalek quote. I mean, what good is a robotic security guard if it can't vaporize things?
Does it have manipulators? Can we at least duct-tape an acetylene torch to its arm or something?
Chelloveck
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
In this "robot".
/. for posting this story.
In
Why?
This has to be the lamest robot "story" on the planet. Similar "security" robots have been built by companies and individuals for years. I remember several companies in the 80's doing this, when robots were the "thing" of the "future".
GPS? Why GPS? A white or black line (or even one done in a flourescent "invisible" paint or something) would be much cheaper for navigation. In a new building, a buried wire under the floor or carpet could be used. Coded tags at doors could further aid navigation (UPC or IR "active" tags).
Nomadic Technologies used to sell research robots with this kind of use in mind (sadly, I just found that they stopped production).
IRobot has a research robot that seems ideal for this as well.
Of course, nothing would beat Odetic's Odex-1 for the "scare" factor in security - too bad this 80's robot never went into production...
Now, homebrew bots - that is where the action is:
Karl Williams seems to have many projects of the type that would make interesting security platforms - or at least something to build off of (mount the vortex cannon or coil gun onto the home drone - yikes!).
This machine might even be better for security - simply because it could be smaller and faster for such a job.
The truth is that there are a lot of homebrew and commercial robots that can easily do what this robot does - probably at a fraction of the cost (actually, some of the commercial bots are quite expensive). There were many robots built in the 80's that were capable as well.
That is the article I want to see. Somehow I was hoping for a two legged chicken walker (not ED-209 sized, but something) patrolling the halls, maybe packing low powered pea shooters for "defense" (actually, one homebrewer managed to build such a robot with a "pea-shooter"-style, multi barrel "gun" - it couldn't hurt you, but it could knock over empty pop cans - I wish I had a link to it - probably do, but it is buried in my link list somewhere deep).
Oh well...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
Okay, side note: when you're responding to a sentence with two phrases, and you're disagreeing violently with one of them, don't use pronouns. "Anyone who says what" -- the part about the Daleks or the part about the thinking? I either strongly agree with you, or I thnk you're an idiot, depending on which one you meant.
Anyhow.
I remember shortly after the Matrix came out, some folks in a newsgroup were discussing how such a malevolent AI could come about in the first place. One suggested some bad code someplace. Another responded with, "It's extremely unlikely that an AI could turn hostile due to sloppy programming. On the other hand, that fucking paperclip in Word 97 seems to do whatever the fuck it wants."
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
Maybe they have a repeater that runs on 802.11 or something?
I gots ta ding a ding dang my dang a long ling long
Do you mean like this one ?
I'll do it for cheesy poofs.
What's \. - an MS-DOS advocacy site?
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Anyone who has been to Wildwood NJ should immediately be thinking about that annoying message:
Watch The Tram Car Please
I'm still working on a clever footer.
Hey, sure it's cool, but I don't think it's too practical. All this robot do is to search for intruders, right ? Security cameras, or motion detectors could do this, couldn't they ? At a fraction of the price.
:) But, then again, who would be crazy to make a killer bot ? There is no robot designer who would do this in a real life situation for the defense of a building. Yes, there are some belical bots at the army, designed to destroy the enemy. But it's a war zone, not a building.
Robots are fine when you have something repetitive that requires physical presence. Such as cleaning. There are cleaning robots, wich I think is much more useful than a walking-camera.
Unless, of course, you give ED-209 some real ammo. Now you're talking a different ball game.
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Roses are #FF0000, Violets are #0000FF, find / -name '*base*' |xargs chown -R us && mv zig greatjustice
Id like to know what kind of GPS they have that will work indoors ... my handheld unit NEVER works indoors, and sometimes not even in my car :)
Free Techno/Jazz/DNB/MI Music by guys obsessed with monkeys!
I believe he is now working in the UK. He writes regular BOFH columns for the Register at http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/30/
Your future looks good... but does that mean at the present time you are aspiring to become a competant campus security guard?
The Internet is generally stupid
Anything?
That's a pretty bold and all inclusive statement. I'll expect him at my door soon to help satisfy my..er, needs.
The Internet is generally stupid
I like the idea, but instead of using GPS for a building, build a custom TX / RX set for the building. Each corner in each room or hall would have a transmitter and using timing + TX id's, it would be possible to calculate the location in the building with high precision. Of course it wouldn't be cheap and would require an atomic master clock for the system.
The truth shall set you free!
I tried it. It doesn't work more than about 2 feet from a window. My house is wood. Maybe it will work better there in a concrete and brick building with many stories. ;-) NOT! Maybe they are planning on building a better GPS system also that will work indoors.
The truth shall set you free!
-- .sig are belong to us!
All your
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
The robot is cruising along the coridors at 35 kph when suddendly it slips on a puddle of spilled coffee, crashes into a wall, and falls over on its (back?). Its rangefinder and camera, now staring at the unfamiliar ceiling cause the robot to initiate a series of intruder alerts to local and national security. MSG: Intruder Alert! Marvin Incapacitated, Intruder considered armed and dangerous. Last seen wearing offwhite tiles and several flourescent lighting fixtures.
Why this must be the work of none other than..
The original BOFH, back yet again to make people's lives miserable! Er..wait..I mean good..er..no I mean bad..er..I dunno whether this is good or bad! I guess good as long as the robot doesn't freak and kill people. But Marvin's a cool name..
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"My days are less enjoyable because of people." ~ Johnny the Homicidal Maniac
What was your username again? *clickety click* What do you mean your files? I don't see anything here...
TODO: Something witty here...
Hang on... we're talking about thinking like a human security guard here. I can just see the code now.
Patrol_Corridors();if (TimeSpentPatrolling > 30) {
get(Donuts);
get(pr0n);
sit_down(fat_ass);
eat(Donuts);
read(pr0n);
scratch(fat_ass);
sleep(60);
}
--
This post is about truth, beauty, freedom, and above all things, Karma
-- This post is about truth, beauty, freedom, and above all things, Karma
yeah, but he kissed some ass w/the coffee machine that is right outside the door of the district court judge's office and he got them to find against ACME ;-)
...something along the lines of:
``Here I am with a brain the size of a planet and I'm on the lookout for students cooking in their rooms. I'm so depressed...''
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CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
...of I shall be forced to activate the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator!
/.
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
I'm sitting back in the Operations Armchair, watching the computer room closed circuit TV, which just happens to be connected to the frame-grabber's video player (sent off for repair, due back sometime in 2007) when the phone rings. That must be the 2nd time today, and it's really starting to get to me!
"Hello?" I say.
"Who is this?" they say
"It's me I think" I say, having successfully attended a telephone skills course
"Me Who?"
"Is this like a knock knock joke?" I say, trying to concentrate on the cute secretary picking up a jar of paperclips that somehow fell off her desk, via the security camera I located in her office last night.
"uhhh.... I have a problem here" says the slow drawly voice down the phone.
I hit pause on the video; can't concentrate with this voice whining in my ear. "What is your issue?" I enquire politely.
"I can't reach my keyboard from here - its too far away. Can I use a keyboard extension cable?"
I'm puzzled by this... I've done nothing to this particular beancounter moron lately that I'm aware of.
"Perhaps you've shrunk since you last used your workstation?" I suggest.
"No", says the user. "I'm hiding under my desk, because theres a tall white plastic scary robot wandering around."
I think - shit! is Christine Rankin in the office? Quickly I flick the CCTV on to channel 27, which covers that area of the building to find that its Marvin the new Security Droid (no, too star-warsy) Dalek (no, thats taken too) Big Scarey Robotic Vehicle (yeah) has ended up banging repeatedly against a table.
"I see the problem" I whisper down the phone. "Be very quiet - this unit has fantastic audio tracking techniques."
"errrp" is all I hear
"You need to sneak around your desk, to the rear of the robot, then put your arm around the front and press the button on the front. It's about 50 centimetres above the floor level. Remember - QUIET or else it'll hear you."
God I'm a bastard - the poor moron can't ask me any questions cos Marvin will hear him speak.
"Nod if you understand" On the CCTV I see him slowly lowers his head and raise it again.
"Go to it Tiger!" I encourage.
I can see the pleb clearly on the screen... he is quivvering with fear. He lays the phone handset gently down on the carpet and proceeds to crawl around the end of his desk.
This is amusing! I quickly shove another tape in the video recorder... ya never know when something blackmailworthy will happen...
Beancounter Bob has reached a position behind Marvin. He reaches his hand out slowly and ever so gently presses the button.
Immediately Marvin blurts out "EXTERMINATE!!!" and his head starts to rotate faster and faster. I quickly patch into the office PA system and yell out "RUN FOR IT!!!"
The twit jumps two metres in the air (I know - I measured it later) and runs out of the building screaming "RUN!!! IT'S COMING TO GET US ALL!!!"
Damn that was a good reset routine I slipped into the eprom data files down in the R&D labs.
(major appologies to Simon)
-- Criggie
Umm... I thought GPS worked by measuring doplar shift and time of arrival to compute a position fix. If you lengthen some or all of the signal paths randomly by reflections, the GPS could not calculate a precise position fix. It would however be able to tell the signal is poor and properly display the estimated position error as a large value. You would make your own building a SA encoder to the signal by providing random multipath signal timing errors. There would be no precise phase and time shifts of individual satelite signals to calculate an accurate position due to the added lengths of the reflected signal paths. For an real life example of this, drive downtown in a large city where the signal bounces between buildings to reach the ground. The signal is fair much of the time, but the positioning is lousy.
The truth shall set you free!
"The robot cannot exterminate people in Dalek fashion but is not far from thinking like a human."
Yeah right! Anyone who says this about any AI we have today is full of it.
Okay, since no one seems to be getting it... (What a surprise on \.) Simon Travaglia, writier of the Bastard Operator From Hell Series is employed (last time I checked at any rate) by Waikato University as a sysadmin.
TODO: Something witty here...
Isn't that slightly dangerous? I can see it now... robot comes swinging round a corner at 35kph and collides with a lecturer - but instead of stopping, keeps running, causing severe injury as it mutters "Kernel Panic"...
http://www.themeparks.ie
They say he'll be upgraded...do you know how often a working project is upgraded at a university?
"`The first ten million years were the worst,' said Marvin, `and the second ten million, they were the worst too. The third ten million I didn't enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline.'"
www.code-fix.com
How long before he gets bored on the job and starts flirting with the vending machines?
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Turns out the GPS on him showed him doing 35km/h in a hallway that had a posted speed limit of 25km/h. ACME car rental sent then a notice of the violation.
Marvin: I'm afraid I have been left here to stop you.
Robber: You? Stop me? Go on.
Marvin: No, really I have.
Robber: What are you armed with?
Marvin: Guess
Robber: Guess?
Marvin: Yes, go on, you'll never guess.
Robber: Errmm... laser beam?
Marvin: No
Robber: No, too obvious I suppose. Anti-matter ray?
Marvin: Far too obvious
Robber: Yes... Er... how about an electron ram?
Marvin: No, not one of those
Robber: I know, you must have one of those new Xanthic Re-Struction Destabilised Zenon Emitters.
Marvin: Nice, aren't they?
Robber: That what you got?
Marvin: No.
...
And so on until the police arrive.
Credit to Douglas Adams.
This thing is worth $10,000? And it actively seeks out intruders?
(Squeal of robot tyres on floor tiles)
(Rumble of robot tyres on wooden ramp)
(Sound of van door slamming. Squeal of van tires on tarmac. Sound of cash register as Evildoer sells $10,000 robot.)
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Why the BOFH of course....
TODO: Something witty here...