Packbots, the Soccer World Cup 2014, and Security: Is this the Future?

Abstract

What is a packbot? How can it be put to positive uses? How has it been commercialised from military application to consumer-centric applications? What does the Roomba vacuum cleaner have in common with the Negotiator and Warrior and Real Baby? Where are we headed with this new technology? Towards greater situational awareness? Towards evidence based policing? How will consumers/citizens respond? WHy are these machines being deployed in Brazil, for a soccer tournament of all places! Will it stop hooliganism? Will the packbot extendable arm reach out and use its claw to stop the perpetrators? Or will these bots comb the ground for surveillance imagery? We all await to see the value proposition!