In Singapore, the Xavier robot will hunt down incivility and violations of health rules

TO Singapore, citizens to “Unwanted social behavior” (either smoking in public or not respecting barrier gestures in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic), will now be rebuffed… by robots! Two robots called Xavier will indeed roam the streets of the city independently, and this thanks to their 360 ° or infrared cameras. The two Xavieres will recall the anti-Covid measures (wearing a mask for example) and will also be able to alert the police authorities when more serious crimes are observed.

Note that Xavier robots are really autonomous: their integrated AI type machine learning has been designed in such a way as to detect certain reprehensible acts, without any intervention of a third party. The robots will be deployed for a period of 3 weeks, probably time to assess its overall performance.

The presence of robot police officers would be justified by insufficient police personnel: the agents assigned to foot patrols could then be absent from more sensitive missions. The participation of robots will theoretically allow the reallocation of police forces to the most urgent interventions.