Israeli Unveil New Automated Defense System

A group of Israeli and German engineers have developed a high tech defense system which employs a monorail perimeter patrolled by automated spybots. These miniature monorail cars have been modified into camera-equipped sentries, designed to scan for intruders as they zip round at over 50 mph.

Linceus GmbH, the company responsible for the development of the system explained how sentries are,

“impervious to bad weather; [can] operate around the clock; and come equipped with dazzling spotlights, high-decibel acoustics and other nonlethal means of warn­ing the unwitting.”

The bots are also outfitted with a thermal and standard camera; laser pointer and laser rangefinder are optional. “Video, voice and oth­er data are broadcast through em­bedded cable on the rail, which also provides the electricity powering the rider’s engine and onboard sub­systems,”

“While optimized for independent operations, the robotic patrols also work in support of ground patrols and anti-infiltration squads. And in cases of extreme threats to sensitive border areas or high-value installa­tions, the system can be linked into external sensors and ground-, sea­ or air-based shooters… [If a facility is] penetrat[ed], the sensors are slaved inward to assist ground patrols in search-and-dis­able mission.”

The company launched the system in a demonstration at Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion Airport.

Spybots are far from a new concept in defensive technology, the U.S. Departments of Defense and Homeland Security have already tried putting cameras on blimps, on towers, even on ground robots in hope of better watching border areas and military bases. But the results have been somewhat varied.

The high-powered G-Boss lenses which were credited for finding bomb-planters in Iraq have all but failed when they were put to use in a prototype virtual fence along the Arizona Mexico border. Costs to build and maintain this system were estimated at “$300 million to $1.7 billion per mile, depending on materials”, a heavy burden on tax payers money.

Linceus GmbH claims that its new defense system should prove to be more cost effective.