Kozhikode: KP-bot, the first humanoid robot cop in the country, was inaugurated on Tuesday by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan at the Kerala Police headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram.
“With the recent developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI), we are seeing the advent of intelligent robots that can perform the tasks similar to that of humans. Not to mention a rising demand globally for human-like robots that can perform tasks such as information assistance, physical assistance, surveillance and so forth. With AI and a range of sensors collecting information of the environment, KP-bot is able to work alongside human beings seamlessly,” said Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Manoj Abraham, who is the nodal officer of Kerala Police Cyberdome.
“In the recently held c0c0n cyber conference, state police chief Loknath Behera had promised that the force would be introducing robots into selected police duties. As a part of the same, Kerala Police Cyberdome worked with Asimov Robotics, a Kochi start-up, and have developed and launched KP-bot. The platform has undergone many revisions and refinements to have the form factor, appearance and behaviour to be similar to human beings. KP-bot is designed to provide top quality service around the clock in terms of public interface and front office administration by overcoming the human error and limitations,”the ADGP said.
He added that this new positioning would not replace any human resources, rather, it can be used as the first contact point and a tool to collect the required data with which they can improve the overall service quality and performance.
The major duties assigned to the KP-bot are - to meet and greet officers and through face recognition, to meet and greet and guide visitors to the appropriate sections within the office as required, and to provide detailed and accurate information to the visitors on the procedures related to services available in the office through verbal communication supported by information displayed on the screen. The KP-bot would also collect information of visitors to fix appointments and issue visitors ID, create case file on complaint/petition detailed by the visitor and allow officers to get connected to the robot though tele-presence.
The future additions planned for the robot are to equip it with additional sensors like metal and IED detectors, thermal imaging, gas sensors and facial gesture recognition etc to address the safety and security aspects of human officers and work place. Through dynamic face recognition and machine learning, they would help visitors to get the update of their petition during the second visit.
