Police and military have been known to use robots with cameras attached to infiltrate dangerous locations, such as a hostage situation where they need to know how many hostages are being held captive along with the positions of the bad guys within the room. A bit bulky and perhaps not so agile but it does the job. Now those who have watched Minority Report probably remember those “spider bots” that could crawl underneath doors and through the different crooks and crannies to get to their intended target – not exactly available right now but perhaps Japan’s flying orb can be considered to be on its way.Flying robots are not exactly new but a flying robot that was under development by Japan’s Ministry of Defense which only cost $1,000 to put together with parts that could be found in Akihabara, Tokyo’s electronics district can be considered to be newsworthy, as typically gadgets and devices put together for and by the military have been known to cost at the very least more than $1,000. The flying orb flies at 40mph on a single propeller with eight wings and can navigate itself through windows, buildings and even confined and narrow spaces.
This was probably designed more for surveillance in mind rather than combat as the orb does not come equipped with guns but rather a camera which can by used by the police or to be used in disaster areas where sending in a robot would be a better idea than sending in a person. Check out the video below to see the orb in action.
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