“Let’s keep Singapore healthy,” says a yellow and black robot dog as it pads along a park path. “For your own safety and for those around you, please stand at least one metre apart. Thank you.” The voice is soft and female. The legs are spindly, and joggers and cyclists in the footage that spread online in May 2020 can be seen giving it room.
The machine is SPOT, built by Boston Dynamics and named after the dog in a popular children’s book. Singapore’s government technology and cyber security agencies put it to work in Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park as part of a two-week trial during the country’s nationwide lockdown. Someone remote-controls it, and a member of park staff walks with it.
What the robot does
Officials said SPOT handles rough terrain in parks and gardens better than other machines. Besides playing the distancing message, it carries cameras and analytics software that estimate how many people are in the park. The authorities said the cameras cannot track individuals or record personal data. A safety sensor picks up objects and people within one metre of its path.
A wheeled robot shaped like a small car was already working at a nearby reservoir, telling visitors “not to loiter” and that “gatherings are not allowed.” SPOT itself had recently been tried at a temporary hospital, where it delivered medicine to patients.
Unease online
Not everyone found it reassuring. Social media users called it “creepy” and “dystopian” and compared it to plotlines from the TV series Black Mirror. Park users in the footage recoiled from it. American journalist Glenn Greenwald wrote on Twitter that it was “one of the creepiest and most dystopian things I’ve seen since the pandemic began.” Commentator Sarah Abdallah asked simply, “What’s next?”
Critics worry the robot could open the door to harsher surveillance. Privacy campaigners elsewhere were already warning about wider police powers and phone-tracing apps in coronavirus responses.
The setting explains some of the tension. Singapore’s rules were strict, with hefty fines and even jail time for breaking them. Until June 1 residents could leave home only for essentials such as grocery shopping, had to wear a mask in public, and could exercise outdoors only alone. The city-state of 5.7 million people had more than 21,000 Covid-19 cases, among the highest tallies in Asia, largely from mass infections in crowded migrant worker dormitories.
Sources
- 'Robodog' patrols park to tell people to keep their distance during lockdown
- Four-legged robot patrols park to enforce social distancing
