Robots Enforcing Coronavirus Lockdown In Tunisia: Would It Work In US? – Screen Rant

As countries around the globe continuethe fight against coronavirus by instituting everything from stay-at-home guidelinesto full-on national lockdowns, the Republic of Tunisia has adopted an unusual tactic to enforce physical distancing - robots that interrogate pedestrians. While the number of coronavirus cases in some hard-hit regions have begun to stabilize, even decline, others remain on the rise, and countries are trying a host of novel approaches to help slow the spread.

Roughly the size of Washington state witha population ofapproximately11.5 million, Tunisia instituted a national lockdown in late March. Itsrelatively extreme measuresinclude the shuttering ofschools and universities along withbars and cafes;the closure of land and maritime borders; the suspension of international flights; and a nightly 12-hour curfew, enforced by police and military personnel... and now, robots.

Related: Coronavirus Drones Taking to the Skies to Detect Infected People

According to The Independent, the robots now patrolling Tunisian streets are the product of a local manufacturer, Enova Robotics. Called the P-Guard,design-wise they look like something George Lucas and company might have left behind after filming wrapped on Star Wars, but according to theircreator, they're packed with state-of-the-art sensors to ensure reliable autonomous operation. Able totravel off-road and in mountainous terrain, along with city sidewalks and streets, the P-Guard utilizes an infrared camera array to assist with navigation and communicates overeither Wi-Fi or4G. Per video footage online, the P-Guardis currentlypatrollingTunisia's streets, stoppingtoallow remote officials viewing the robots' video feeds to interrogate pedestrians about why they've left their home.

The site of a boxy, self-driving robotpolicingunnaturally quiet city streets might call to mind a dystopianSci-Fi scenario, but amazinglyit'sjust anotherpart of the temporary new normal. It's not hard to imagine options like drone deliveries a la Amazon's still-in-development Prime Air being popularat a time when large swathes of the population are actively trying to avoid any physical contact. Whether or not a system like the one Tunisia has employed with the P-Guard could work in a country like the US is questionable.

Tunisia's lockdown is by all accounts just that - a strict closure of much of the country, within and without. To maintain such a relatively hard-line positionwhile trying to keep human interaction to a minimum, employing something along the lines of the P-Guard makes some sense. In the US, where the coronavirus response is still very much ad hoc, with few if any strictly enforcing stay-at-home orders with arrests or even fines, the P-Guardwould likely be little more than a verynovel loudspeaker, anda probable target of expensive-to-remedy vandalism. Concerns over surveillance and privacy are still very much on the public's mind in the US during the pandemic - perhaps even more so, as data is being requested andshared as a way to track infections.

Limiting human contact is provingfar and away to be the best method of blunting the spread of coronavirus - so in that sense, Tunisia's use of the P-Guard as another method of enforcing physical distancingshouldn't be discounted.However, itseffectiveness whereanything less than a full-on lockdown has been instituted seems questionable, as a disembodied voice barking orders through arobot's loudspeaker is more likely to result in memes than compliance.

Next: Apps to Help With Self-Isolation During Coronavirus Outbreak

Source: The Independent

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Collin Armstrong has worked in and around television and film since 2010. He's written, sold, and optioned multiple scripts, served as a researcher and consulting producer on documentaries, worked in scripted and unscripted TV development, and story produced in unscripted TV. He lives with his family in Los Angeles, California, and is probably sitting in traffic right now.

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Robots Enforcing Coronavirus Lockdown In Tunisia: Would It Work In US? - Screen Rant