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Intelligent Robot Could Be Scrapped After Two Daring Escapes From The Lab [Videos]

By Anne Sewell
Published on: 02:20 PST, Jun 23, 2016

A remarkably intelligent robot was created to be able to think for itself, but designers never imagined it would yearn for its freedom. However after two wily escapes from the premises, the poor robot could get shut down.

The Promobot IR77 first made headlines last week after it escaped from the lab in Perm, Central Russia, on June 14. In that incident the wily robotic escape artist ran out of battery power after only 45 minutes – and right in the middle of a busy street – after escaping through a gate that hadn’t been closed properly. You can watch the fun below.

According to a spokesperson for Promobot, the robot has been programmed to avoid obstacles. However, they hadn’t planned on it finding ways to to get around things to such an extent that it could leave the research center.

When the intelligent robot ran out of battery power in the middle of traffic, it caused no end of chaos as vehicles tried to avoid hitting it. After that incident, scientists working at the lab reprogrammed it twice, but the darn thing continues to try to escape and they are now seriously thinking of scrapping it.

According to a report by RT News, the other robots created in the same series are perfectly well-behaved and stay at home, but this one particular Promobot IR77 has an itch for the open road.

Oleg Kivokurtsev, co-founder of the research lab that created Promobot IR77, said that “We are currently working on third-generation robots which we plan to launch in autumn. This is why we have given all the robots artificial intelligence (AI).”

He added that “We have changed the AI system twice, so now I think we might have to dismantle it.”

Promobot, which is reportedly short for “Promotional Robot,” was developed by the Russian scientists to work in customer relations. The artificially intelligent robot is designed to interact realistically with humans, to remember each person it meets and to be able to answer questions.

Now with the news hitting YouTube that the clever robot could be dismantled, people are begging the scientists to allow the robot to live. One commented in a heartfelt way.

“Don’t kill it!”

Another woman on YouTube commented the following.

“Why do you want to destroy it? You’ve broken my heart. Can’t you find a use for this unique marvel?”

“Give it to me, please. I gonna find common language with it. If you’re itching to break something, itch yourself or break the chair under you,” another user wrote.

As reported by the Mirror Online, this isn’t the first incident of a robot going rogue. They quote the story of a cleaning robot in Austria that reportedly “committed suicide” by turning itself on and climbing onto a working hotplate.

When firemen arrived on the scene of a blaze in Kirchdorf, Austria they found the remains of the Irobot Roomba 760 robot melted on the hotplate.

In that case, the robot had been put to work on the kitchen counter to clean up some spilled cereal, but apparently was upset with its change in altitude. Reportedly after doing its task, the robot was switched off and left in place, but somehow managed to reactivate itself, making its way across the work surface to the hot plate, where it apparently pushed a cooking pot out of the way and ended its life.

In the latest case with Promobot, maybe it would have helped to program the robot to say “I’ll be back?”

[Photo via Promobot/YouTube]

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