Coronavirus: Robot dog in Singapore enforcing lockdown restrictions in city's parks

‘Spot’ the robo-dog repeatedly tells park-goers to ‘Keep Singapore healthy and stay one metre apart’

A headless robotic dog has been deployed to patrol a park in Singapore to encourage locals to continue social distancing.

The yellow and black coloured contraption roams the city-centre park equipped with cameras to estimate how many people are congregating.

It also regularly plays a recording reminding anyone in earshot of the country’s lockdown rules.

“Let’s keep Singapore healthy. For your own safety and for those around you, please stand at least one metre apart. Thank you,” a female voice says on repeat.

The robot, which was made by the American firm Boston Dynamics, is controlled remotely and is a trial by Singapore’s cyber security agencies.

If the experiment is deemed a success in enforcing social distancing, it could become a more permanent feature of the city-state’s coronavirus measures.

However, the presence of the robo-dog has not been without controversy. In a video published by The Straits Times newspaper, parkgoers who are already staying several metres away from each other can be seen recoiling in confusion and fear as the dog, nicknamed Spot by its handlers, trots along a path.

Paradoxically, several bystanders can also be seen lingering in the park to take photos and videos of the unusual robot on its patrols.

Glenn Greenwald, an American investigative journalist, helped a video of the robot go viral when he described it as “one of the creepiest and most dystopian things I’ve seen”.

Authorities have promised the robot’s cameras can only assess how many people are in the park in general and will not track or recognise specific individuals.

The Singaporean Spot is far from unique. Its makers, Boston Dynamics, have been working on four-legged robots for years and last year unveiled Spot as their latest and most versatile model.

As well as being controlled remotely by a human, cameras built into the robot mean it can move around by itself in some circumstances. The company hopes it could be bought and used by businesses for tasks as varied as testing buildings for gas leaks or checking valves on an oil rig.

Parks officials in Singapore have also deployed 30 drones to count how many people are visiting parks, and a larger four-wheeled robot shaped like a small car has been deployed at a reservoir to warn locals not to loiter.

Singapore’s lockdown rules state citizens can only leave their homes for essential trips or exercise alone and must wear masks outdoors at all times.

The crowded city-state of 5.7m people has seen 21,000 cases of coronavirus, particularly along its large population of migrant workers who live in cramped dormitories.