State police in Massachusetts are thanking a robotic dog, for helping avert a tragedy involving a person barricaded in a home. The robotic dog named Roscoe was part of the Massachusetts State Police Bomb Squad, deployed on March 6 in a Barnstable house after police were fired upon. Police sent in two other robots often used for bomb disposal into the house to find the suspect along with the robotic dog, the Associated Press reports.
Controlled remotely by state troopers, Roscoe first checked the two main floors before going to the basement, where it found a person, who has not yet been identified, armed with a rifle, who twice knocked over Roscoe before shooting it three times and disabling its communication. The person was ultimately arrested after police shot tear-gas into the house. "The insertion of Roscoe into the suspect residence prevented the need, at that stage of response, from inserting human operators, and may have prevented a police officer from being involved in an exchange of gunfire," police officials said. Boston Dynamics, the company that made the robotic dog known as a SPOT robot, said in a statement that it was the first time one of its robotic canines had been shot. The robotic dog was sent to Boston Dynamics to remove the bullets. It will remain with the company and a new unit will be sent to state police.
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