Schools Deploy Robots for Security.

"When Lori Andrews attended her daughter's graduation at Santa Fe High School, she spotted a 5-foot-10, 400-pound robot roaming the football field alongside the newest alumni.

Andrews, a visual arts teacher at the school, said she initially thought the robot was taking photos of the graduates. She was taken aback when her husband described it as a police robot and she learned that it was providing 360-degree camera footage to the school security team.

"My reaction was, 'Yuck,'" Andrews said. "What is it filming, what kind of camera is on it?"

The New Mexico school district started a pilot program in mid-June with the robot, which patrols the multi-building campus grounds 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Amid growing concerns about gun violence and mass shootings in schools, several companies are starting to offer similar robots to schools across the country. Few schools have deployed the machines thus far, primarily for campus surveillance. But they have the potential to do much more, including potentially confronting attackers and others who come onto campuses without permission.

Using artificial intelligence, the robot in Santa Fe learns the school's normal patterns of activity and detects individuals who are on campus after hours or are displaying aggressive behavior, said Andy Sanchez, who manages sales for Team 1st Technologies, the robot's distributor in North America.

In the case of an active shooter or other threat, the robot could alert the security team, Sanchez said. It could move toward the intruder and transmit video footage that informs the officers' course of action, he said. The robot isn't armed but can confront intruders, and human security team members would be able to speak to the intruder through the robot's communication system.

The school chose to disable the robot's weapons detection features during the pilot, although the security team is determining whether it might be added at a later time, said Mario Salbidrez, executive director of safety and security at Santa Fe Public Schools.

The robot doesn't have facial recognition features, and Santa Fe High School owns the robot's video footage, meaning it can decide whether or not to save it, Sanchez said.

The robot hasn't yet detected intruders on campus, but it has alerted the security team to new workers entering the school's construction site and individuals trying to open locked doors in harmless attempts to enter buildings, Salbidrez said. Its cameras have also caught faculty members waving to the cameras and students making peace signs.

Callie Trader, a rising senior at Santa Fe High School, said she is unfazed by additional surveillance on campus. She doesn't think the robot will change students' behavior any more than existing security cameras do.

"I think it will just be funnier, just different," she said.

Other districts are considering robots in a security role. Robert Stokes, co-owner and president of Stokes Robotics, said his company is working with multiple districts across the country. In most cases, schools will use robots in the classroom to teach students about coding, Stokes said. But in the face of an armed intruder, the robot could take more aggressive action, pointing a laser beam at a suspect's chest or using flashing lights to try to induce them to drop their weapons.

Humans would be responsible for deciding the robot's course of action in real-time but could remain out of the line of fire in the case of an active shooter, Stokes said.

Brad Wade, superintendent of Wyandotte Public Schools in Oklahoma, said the district hopes to introduce four robots from Stokes Robotics in the fall.

Team 1st Technologies is piloting the robot at Santa Fe High School free of charge for the summer. The cost for the 2023-24 school year is estimated to be around $60,000 to $70,000, Salbidrez said. The school is still determining if the robot is worth the investment, he said." [1]

1. U.S. News: Schools Deploy Robots for Security. Tagami, Megan. 
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 08 July 2023: A.5.

Mokyklos saugumui diegia robotus

 

„Kai Lori Andrews dalyvavo savo dukters išleistuvėse Santa Fė vidurinėje mokykloje, ji pastebėjo 5 pėdų 10 colių, 400 svarų sveriantį, robotą, klaidžiojantį futbolo aikštėje kartu su naujausiais absolventais.

 

     Mokyklos vizualiųjų menų mokytoja Andrews sakė, kad iš pradžių manė, kad robotas fotografuoja abiturientus. Ji buvo nustebinta, kai jos vyras apibūdino jį, kaip policijos robotą, ir sužinojo, kad mokyklos apsaugos komandai jis pateikia 360 laipsnių kameros filmuotą medžiagą.

 

     „Mano reakcija buvo: „Yuck“, – sakė Andrewsas. „Ką tai filmuoja, kokia kamera jame yra?

 

     Naujosios Meksikos mokyklos rajonas birželio viduryje pradėjo bandomąją programą su robotu, kuris 24 valandas per parą, septynias dienas per savaitę patruliuoja daugiabučių miestelio teritorijoje.

 

     Didėjant susirūpinimui dėl smurto su ginklais ir masinių šaudynių mokyklose, kelios įmonės pradeda siūlyti panašius robotus mokykloms visoje šalyje. Nedaug mokyklų iki šiol dislokavo mašinas, visų pirma universiteto miestelio stebėjimui. Tačiau jie gali padaryti daug daugiau, įskaitant potencialų susidūrimą su užpuolikais ir kitais, kurie atvyksta į miestelius be leidimo.

 

     Naudodamas dirbtinį intelektą, robotas Santa Fėje išmoksta įprastus mokyklos veiklos modelius ir aptinka asmenis, kurie yra miestelyje po darbo valandų arba demonstruoja agresyvų elgesį, sakė Andy Sanchezas, vadovaujantis pardavimams Team 1st Technologies, roboto platintojui Šiaurės Amerikoje.

 

     Aktyvaus šaulio ar kitos grėsmės atveju robotas gali įspėti apsaugos komandą, sakė Sanchezas. Jis gali pajudėti link įsibrovėlio ir perduoti vaizdo medžiagą, kuri informuoja pareigūnų veiksmus, sakė jis. Robotas nėra ginkluotas, bet gali susidoroti su įsibrovėliais, o žmonių saugumo komandos nariai galėtų pasikalbėti su įsibrovėliu per roboto ryšio sistemą.

 

     Mokykla pasirinko išjungti roboto ginklų aptikimo funkcijas pilotavimo metu, nors apsaugos komanda sprendžia, ar ji gali būti pridėta vėliau, sakė Mario Salbidrezas, Santa Fė viešųjų mokyklų vykdomasis saugos ir saugumo direktorius.

 

     Robotas neturi veido atpažinimo funkcijų, o Santa Fė vidurinei mokyklai priklauso roboto vaizdo medžiaga, o tai reiškia, kad ji gali nuspręsti, ar ją išsaugoti, ar ne, sakė Sanchezas.

 

     Robotas dar neaptiko įsibrovėlių universiteto miestelyje, tačiau jis perspėjo apsaugos komandą apie naujus darbuotojus, įeinančius į mokyklos statybų aikštelę, ir asmenis, bandančius atidaryti užrakintas duris nekenksmingais bandymais patekti į pastatus, sakė Salbidrezas. Jo kameros taip pat užfiksavo fakulteto narius, mojuojančius kameroms, ir studentus, darančius taikos ženklus.

 

     Santa Fė vidurinės mokyklos auklėtinė Callie Trader sakė, kad jos netrikdo papildomas stebėjimas miestelyje. Ji nemano, kad robotas pakeis mokinių elgesį labiau, nei esamos apsaugos kameros.

 

     „Manau, kad bus tiesiog juokingiau, tiesiog kitaip“, – sakė ji.

 

     Kiti rajonai svarsto, kad robotai atliktų saugumo vaidmenį. Robertas Stokesas, „Stokes Robotics“ bendrasavininkas ir prezidentas, sakė, kad jo įmonė dirba su keliais rajonais visoje šalyje. Daugeliu atvejų mokyklos naudos robotus klasėje, kad mokytų mokinius apie kodavimą, sakė Stokesas. Tačiau susidūręs su ginkluotu įsibrovėliu robotas gali imtis agresyvesnių veiksmų, nukreipdamas lazerio spindulį į įtariamojo krūtinę arba mirksinčiomis šviesomis, bandydamas priversti jį mesti ginklą.

 

     Žmonės būtų atsakingi už sprendimą dėl roboto veiksmų realiuoju laiku, tačiau aktyvaus šaudymo atveju jie galėtų likti toli nuo ugnies linijos, sakė Stokesas.

 

     Bradas Wade'as, Wyandotte valstybinių mokyklų Oklahomoje vadovas, sakė, kad rajonas tikisi rudenį pristatyti keturis „Stokes Robotics“ robotus.

 

     „Team 1st Technologies“ vasarą nemokamai pilotuoja robotą Santa Fė vidurinėje mokykloje. Apskaičiuota, kad 2023–2024 mokslo metų išlaidos bus apie 60 000–70 000 dolerių, sakė Salbidrezas. Jis sakė, kad mokykla vis dar sprendžia, ar robotas yra vertas investicijų." [1]

 

1. U.S. News: Schools Deploy Robots for Security. Tagami, Megan. 
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 08 July 2023: A.5.

When Your Neighbor Has 2,500 Hogs.

"MORNING SUN, Iowa -- Jean and Thomas Lappe rolled down the window of their 2010 Ford F-150 as they drove to one of the more than a dozen industrial hog farms that surround their home.

A hog's carcass was visible in the dumpster outside the facility. The stench of animal feces filled the truck.

"Every day, every hour, this is what they put out," said Thomas Lappe, 70 years old, about the hog farms built near his home in the past decade.

Most hogs today are raised in barns that house thousands of animals, often owned by a company contracting with a farmer. The factory-style operations are an economic driver in agriculture-dominated states such as Iowa, and a boon to many smaller pork producers.

But they can be a nightmare for those living nearby, after several court rulings and state laws have left residents with fewer avenues to stop their expansion.

Shawn Adam, who owns six hog barns in southeast Iowa with his family, said the operations offer a way for him and his children to continue farming. "We're not going to get Microsoft to build warehouses here. We're not going to get Firestone to put a tire plant in," he said. "We're a small rural community with a packing house 50 miles away."

Hogs outnumber residents by about 7 to 1 in Iowa, the top pork producer in the nation. Hog farms and pork processors directly employed 36,070 workers in the state in 2021, according to the National Pork Producers Council.

The number of hog farms in Iowa fell by nearly 90% between the 1980s and 2017, according to federal data. The number of animals on each farm has risen significantly during the same time.

A glut of pork has recently caused steep losses in the hog industry, with some farmers losing $30 or more on each hog they produce.

A typical hog farm around the Lappes is capable of producing enough feces and urine to fill one-and-a-half Olympic-size swimming pools a year. The animals' manure breaks down in pits, emitting ammonia, methane and other noxious gases. It is then pumped up to be used as fertilizer.

The manure can contain pathogens and antibiotics given to prevent illness from spreading through densely populated pens, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and multiple studies. Critics of the operations and environmental advocates say the manure can run off fields and foul waterways.

Pork industry representatives said the manure is an alternative to commercial fertilizer, and that such fears discount regulations the barns must abide by.

Landowners have sued to stop livestock confinements from operating near their homes. City or county officials have sought to add restrictions but are often unsuccessful.

A March 2023 court ruling in Missouri upheld a state law that bans local governments from regulating the facilities. A 2022 Iowa Supreme Court ruling made it tougher for neighbors to sue hog farms as nuisances.

All states had a right-to-farm law that gives farmers some form of immunity as of 2022, according to the National Agricultural Law Center. Before that year, Iowa had been an outlier in ruling that immunity could be unconstitutional under certain conditions, the court said.

Lawmakers in Nebraska and other states have considered bills to shield agricultural operations from nuisance lawsuits. A similar law passed in North Carolina in 2018 after a jury awarded 10 hog-farm neighbors $50 million in punitive damages. The amount was later reduced because of a state law limiting punitive damages.

"We're trying to be proactive," said Nebraska Sen. Beau Ballard, a Republican who represents parts of the city of Lincoln and Lancaster County. The lawsuits-shielding bill he proposed didn't pass this session, but he thinks the state can find a balanced approach that will be approved.

Of seven nuisance cases tried in Iowa between 2008 and 2019, all but one found there wasn't a nuisance, said Eldon McAfee, an attorney who has represented the Iowa Pork Producers Association and individual hog producers. In some, other neighbors testified they were unbothered by the operations and their smell.

"Even though people were saying how terrible it was other people said it wasn't," McAfee said. "The juries heard the evidence."

Jean Lappe said she helped raise up to 240 hogs at a time with her sisters while they were growing up in the Morning Sun area.

She and her husband now keep their windows closed to block the odor and flies from confinements located within 2 1/2 miles of them.

"I know what hogs smell like," Jean Lappe said. "This is something totally different."

Gordon Garrison, 81, a landowner whose lawsuit prompted the 2022 Iowa ruling, kept notes of odors he smelled and which direction the wind was blowing after a confinement began operating near his farm in northwest Iowa around 2015.

The Iowa Supreme Court ruled against Garrison, writing in its opinion that protecting livestock production is "a legitimate state interest, and granting partial immunity from nuisance suits is a proper means to that end." The Lappes were among numerous families and a town that sued the operators of large hog barns in the Morning Sun-area. They lost their case.

Adam's family decided to start operating their facility, which houses thousands of hogs owned by meatpacking giant JBS Foods, for a stable supply of manure to spread on row crops they raise. Adam said it also offers an economic boost to an industry where young farmers can struggle to raise the capital costs to break in, and that the general public doesn't understand how much labor and paperwork is involved.

It is "all things that you have to do to continue to survive," he said. "And to not only survive -- thrive."" [1]

1. U.S. News: When Your Neighbor Has 2,500 Hogs. Najmabadi, Shannon. 
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 08 July 2023: A.3.