Israel's Guardium warbots probably not as lame as their promo video

We've seen a couple armed defense bots make the scene now -- the US military even has a couple deployed in Iraq -- but the promo video for the $600,000 Guardium bots recently commissioned by Israel isn't exactly a fearsome demonstration of next-gen force. Not only do the rendered old-school CRT displays offer warnings like INTRUDER NONCOMPLIANT, all the bot seems to be able to do is sneeze out of a cloud of white smoke. Terrifying. Maybe these things play better at defense contractor conventions, but something tells us that an actual angry dog might be a little more effective. Check the whole video below.

[Via Danger Room]

[Harkonian @ Apr 29th 2008 4:52PM]

If they hired a advertising firm to create that demo they should ask for their money back. Sheer fail.

[Harkonian @ Apr 29th 2008 4:53PM]

"an advertising firm"...damn you prosthetic pointing finger!

[Flashpoint @ Apr 29th 2008 11:57PM]

Israel...

coming up with new and exciting ways to murder Palestinians.

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Apr 30th 2008 1:54AM]

Just remember that every time Israel signs a cease fire agreement, it's always the Palestinians who are the first to shoot and the first to break the terms of the agreement. Israel only fires back in defense to eliminate the agressors.

[Oinquer @ May 1st 2008 5:11AM]

yep...don't call Israel murders...they just do an eye for 100 eye's.....
anyway its true...Israel signs cease fire and some ass comes and blows himself in Israel territory...
Palestine got Gaza from Israel then they started blowing everything in there....nice work palestine! nice work

[OneLove @ Apr 30th 2008 12:45PM]

love the [intruder noncompliant!] AI. I think vista has that built in.

[Zoli @ Apr 29th 2008 4:54PM]

At least the white smokes makes terrorists cough!

[Adam @ Apr 29th 2008 5:10PM]

Nahh....but it might scare land-stealing, government-backed, military- protected Israeli settlers (aka the real terrorists).

http://www.btselem.org/Download/Settlements_Map_Eng.jpg

[Zoli @ Apr 29th 2008 5:48PM]

Truth is, if it can launch smoke gernades, it can launch frag gernades, and/or be retrofitted with guns. I'm sure that was just for demostrational purposes.

The design is cool though- kind of like a mini batmobile.

[Zoli @ Apr 29th 2008 5:59PM]

Adam, while this is engadget and not a forum to discuss middle east politics, I will say:

You're totally right, suicide bombings, mass shootings, public beheadings, education of hate, and all around preaching of violence is all cool. Chilling out in your living room makes you a 'real terrorist.' As you so eloquently put it.

Good job.

Now go learn some friggin israeli/ middle east history before spewing things out of your tuchus.

[Ben @ Apr 29th 2008 6:17PM]

Not to mention that map you posted was irrelevant, purposefully hard to interpret, and created in 2002 before the withdraw from the West Bank.

WTF is wrong with you?

[Saad @ Apr 29th 2008 11:16PM]

politics and gadgets don't blend

[Shogan @ Apr 29th 2008 7:51PM]

I'm gonna side with Adam on this. Israel isn't any better (or worse) than anyone else in the region. They are pretty much the bullies of the Middle East.

[deyanimay @ Apr 29th 2008 10:08PM]

they are worse you can just search Palestine on youtube and watch all the videos of the horrible things that are happening to the Palestinians. Imagine someone coming to your city surrounding it with barriers and slowly bulldozing houses down one by one, I'm sure you would get pissed off and fight back.

[icingdeath88 @ Apr 29th 2008 10:44PM]

Wow another wonderful tool of destruction for the Israelis to destroy innocent civilians with. I know that after WWII, it became taboo to say anything against the Jews, but Israel has killed more innocent people than any other group in recent history. Their occupation of Palestine is a genocide, and has been for decades. Read a little on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Israeli-Palestinian_conflict
Israel continues to give the finger to any action taken by the UN, because they have the only support that matters: the US's.

@Zoli: Yea, I'll give them that they're more "modern", but that doesn't mean they haven't massacred, what, a million people maybe? We'll never know, because they don't allow third parties to come in and watch the killing or count the bodies. Remember Jenin? The Sabra and Shatila massacre? Of course not, because to you everything Israel does is right, because the Palestinians never existed, they were just these horrible, backwards Mozlems who've been occupying land that has always and will always belong to Jews, just because they're Jewish, and fuck everyone else. Go ahead thinking Israel's out there all by itself in the middle of this horrible sea of terrorists, without billions of dollars and political support from the only superpower.

You're gonna have a smart ass comment after this that is purely fueled by your dislike of "terrorist" Arabs or Muslims. Just look at the facts, man.

[paps @ Apr 29th 2008 10:57PM]

icingdeath88 (whatever that name means) - why are you posting gibberish about something you apparently don't comprehend on a gadget forum?

Just because the word Israel appear in a title, this does not mean the comment section becomes a forum to bash Jewish people and their country. If the story was as one-sided as you put it, then there wouldn't be any right to Israel's existence. Obviously there is and this is about technology so keep your ridiculous comments away. I think there is technology section at Aljazeera's website for you to find some friends:)

[Nadav @ Apr 30th 2008 9:57AM]

@Deyanimay
heres some youtube for ya:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=AERB1zNoar8
and to back the video up:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mercaz_Harav_massacre

[eeeMan @ Apr 29th 2008 4:54PM]

The looks like an imac with wheels. aka a piece of crap

[absurdio @ Apr 29th 2008 7:40PM]

Hell, while we're at it, eeeman, I'd even say it looks exactly as much like an eeePC as it does an imac. ...also a blender. ...also a horse. ...and a balloon. I mean. ...actually, this thing doesn't look much like an imac, at all... Thanks for the comment, though.

[Magallanes @ Apr 29th 2008 4:56PM]

In USA, they are just a step near of a recession and still you can find people willing to spend a lot of (not they) money on a useless (and uncool) toys.

:-(

[Ford @ Apr 29th 2008 5:07PM]

these bots were commissioned by Israel.

try actually reading the post next time.

[John P @ Apr 29th 2008 5:10PM]

Can you perhaps clarify what you were attempting to say? Because the US hasn't bought any of these "toys"...and government spending is actually a conceivable way to get us out of a recession, although not on this device as it isn't made here.

[Reader @ Apr 29th 2008 6:31PM]

Even going on the pretense that the U.S. was buying these, your post still drips with ignorance. Take a basic macroecon course and you'll find that recessions aren't as simple to fix as not spending money (one of the many possible causes of a recession).

[Josh L @ Apr 29th 2008 4:56PM]

That video is hilarious. It reminds me of many a secret agent B-movie.

Also, as an aside, let me make sure I have this straight: When articles are posted about military robots (which are almost always not autonomous robots, but ROVs) with real guns, snide comments are made about Skynet and how terrible it is that these robots could kill people.

Now a robot comes along that's equipped with a non-lethal weapon (apparently a teargas grenade launcher) and it's "lame" and sarcastically "terrifying". Can you guys make up your minds?

[Loonie @ Apr 29th 2008 5:06PM]

... is this some recently uncovered Glen A. Larson production or something?

[LarryLarryLarry @ Apr 29th 2008 5:06PM]

If I was a ninja who could pass through a wire fence without cutting it, I could also breathe tear gas.

[Low Ranked @ Apr 29th 2008 5:25PM]

The bot came up behind him before he was able to cut through it..

[OSnix*-geek @ Apr 29th 2008 5:07PM]

What resemblence does this thing have to an imac.


You fail for starting a an apple vs. m$ war, in a completely unrelated and off-topic posting.

You my sir deserve an award for being a pretentious ASS!

[Low Ranked @ Apr 29th 2008 5:25PM]

Then I guess you get the award for missing the Reply button.

[eeeMan @ Apr 29th 2008 5:30PM]

haha we each have awards then!

[Loonie @ Apr 29th 2008 6:12PM]

Whee! Rewards for everyone!

[Chird @ Apr 29th 2008 5:12PM]

It's nice of that ninjaspy to just wait there for like 5 minutes for the robot to show up...and then to stand in the cloud of teargas...and then run away instead of three feet to the left out of the cloud...and then knock over the stupid teargas shooting robot...

[PGP-Protector @ Apr 29th 2008 5:19PM]

Few improvements.

1) Speed
2) Ability to go around buildings, not through them
3) Flame Thrower

[oZone @ Apr 29th 2008 11:37PM]

- Ability to play Doom.

[yeas @ Apr 29th 2008 5:47PM]

And then you get two people to cut the fence on opposite sides...

[Blaktornado @ Apr 29th 2008 5:53PM]

That failed so much it... it... WON!

[Jonathan @ Apr 29th 2008 5:56PM]

At first I was thinking "don't they have LCD monitors in Israel??" and then I realized that it wasn't real and wondered why they don't even have virtual LCDs?

I mean, a virtual CRT?? wtf.

[Roi @ Apr 29th 2008 6:32PM]

Well, that is a funny promo :D LAME!
we do have LCD's here
actually, when you get to a store you can't buy CRT, they just don't exist anymore...

the real deal - is much better. (i hope)

[Reader @ Apr 29th 2008 6:42PM]

Ignorant bastards. The guy obviously only spoke Ninja and probably got gassed for no reason. They need a "yell 2 for Ninja" before doing the whole "Leave now!" deal.

[Ewoks FTW @ Apr 29th 2008 7:32PM]

will it blend? If not, it must be useless....

[oZone @ Apr 29th 2008 11:38PM]

More importantly, will it play Doom?

[Zhalfim Deyn @ Apr 30th 2008 8:45AM]

@oZone

dude, one "Doom" comment was almost acceptable, but two of the same type of jokes aren't...

[Cutter @ Apr 29th 2008 7:35PM]

Who's gonna fix the fence..the bot...Not!

[pfromg @ Apr 29th 2008 8:07PM]

I don't get it, the intruder was already in the perimeter .planting the bomb from the inside. He escaped by magically flying through the fence, and was kind enough to remove the bomb he just planted from fence.
Why was the robot so kind to this guy? why not just run him over?

This machine really sucks , and so does the idea of robots being nice to terrorists.

[bob @ Apr 29th 2008 8:28PM]

Uhhh....perhaps the Israelis are getting a little TOO up on military? Everyone else in the region fears invasion...

[wrabbit @ Apr 29th 2008 8:44PM]

In Soviet Russia the bots gas you.... oh wait, I don't think that works.

[oZone @ Apr 29th 2008 11:39PM]

More like in Soviet Russia, the gas bots you. amirite?

[amitaniosis @ Apr 29th 2008 8:53PM]

Wait...I thought you're supposed to capture intruders when they infiltrate a government/military facility, not force them to leave and hope they never come back. o.O

[Brad @ Apr 29th 2008 10:25PM]

I'm guessing that's tear gas, or something, but look at the other obvious messup in the ad: intruder alert! Spray with tear gas! Done. Let's leave that gaping hole in the fence...

[YoMomma @ Apr 29th 2008 10:48PM]

Wait thats not how it happens, the dude that operates the vehicle will shoot at innocent palestines because "they hate jews".