Tuesday, October 14, 2008

My Views About MAC Robot of Makati Police

I just saw from the news about the new member of the Makati Police Office, it was a remote- controlled robot capable of handling quite difficult job, like handing over a cellphone to a hostage-taker in case of hostage negotiation, or taking explosives from a bomb scene to a safety area for disarming or detonating them if necessary.

I admired the effort of developing MAC, but the price is damn high, man! I think the value is P60, 000 or P600, 000, either is big amount of tax-payers' money. Well Makati is a premier city, the amount is nothing but maybe just a looose-change.

IT applications of MAC maybe impressive but only few functions were demonstrated, to include holding the microphone of the reporter. I will not compare it to the robots, I saw when i was in Iraq, by the US military. From unmanned-aerial vehicles to bomb tech robots, these robots are really made of great seriousness, researches and dry-run before publishing or showing them to the public... up to their deployment to real actions in war zone or threatened area.

Sa palagay ko, in my technical opinion lng ha, medyo sa totoong buhay.. MAC can not be as reliable as what it was really intended for. The structures promise nothing but weakness and malfunctions during actual endurance response, and slight impact of shockwaves might disturb the IT system, to include the mechanicals. Healthy critics lang po...kasi when I was in K9 and responding to bomb threats with other EODs... bombs were not really design for the size of MAC. They were designed to tear down a building... palagay ko di kaya ni MAC buhatin ang isang maletang may bomba or a parking car bomb...so limited na si MAC sa isang aksyon. I am sure, trained and expert human intervention is far better, faster and more safe than MAC..... for lower price from tax money. Baka umasa ang public that they have additional hero to the line of heroes of Mamang Pulis...

Sana na isaalang-alang yung importanteng elements on how to react to a bomb scence in developing MAC, para nailagay sa kanya ang bagay na dapat nyang magawa sa ganitong responde. Well, MAC might carrying some undisclosed functions to be used for other emegencies... pero sa bomb theat medyo kulang. EOD boys know about that...initiators might react to MAC.

Sana medyo, iba ang konsepto ni MAC, kasi yung functions na meron sya ay mga functions na di na binigyan-tuon ng developers ng mga robots inventors sa US and Japan with military applications being basics, kasi nga mas ok kung tao ang gagawa ng paraan para maiabot ang cellphone sa hostage-taker, or hilahin ang light weight IEDs. Pero over-all cute siya, wag lang syang mamumulot ng 5-star na may sindi....baka makalas at maging shrapnels pa ang parts nya. Aba, nakakabasag ng lens ng camera ang putok ng 5-star huh...Parang late na yung functions na kaya ni MAC para sa 21st century.

I wish MAC would be the prime mover of other robot-enthusiats to develop real ones with aboslute real capabilities and reliabilities to whatever or wherever it will be intended. Something that reflects 21th century applications...we can not say Pinoy can not do it or we do not have the budget..almost everything is available in the Philippines, and if not, they can be ordered somewhere else.

Maganda ang inumpisahan ni MAC...sana bawat PNP Command has its own type of working robot.

Anyway... my snappy salute guys... well-done!

If rated between 1 to 10....MAC is good to have 2. Cute talaga ang robot na ito.