this post was submitted on 30 May 2025
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A Boring Dystopia

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It's like RoboCop, except the robots are villains helping human villains villain more comprehensively.

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[–] fubarx@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago

It's been a while, but for the price, it had an under-powered processor and anything other than just walking around had to be custom programmed. It got used for a few trade shows, where people watched it walk around, sit down, etc. Robotic grappling arm? There were more stable, wheeled platforms where you could actually place items and autonomously have it delivered.

Main use-cases were as an overpriced security guard, or a webcam with legs, but the operations costs were pretty high. It couldn't really get around hilly, dirt or muddy terrain, so you had to stick to paved routes. There were attachment peripherals, but for every single use-case, there were better, cheaper, more flexible equivalent solutions.

The most impressive thing was the coordinated movement of the legs, pretty solid build, and the sound of the servos. But that meant you couldn't use it for stealth scenarios. Oh yeah, it looked pretty menacing and scared children.

We figured if it was ever put out into real service, it would get jacked by a few yokels with a pickup truck, or smashed up by highschoolers on a dare. Eventually the novelty wore off, and it got retired to a demo area for visiting customers.