Use of lethal force by a robot raises legal questions

Dallas police using a robot against the suspect in an ambush against a sniper attacker has raised legal questions. A bomb disposal squad robot was jerryrigged to carry an explosive device to the target, according to a report in The Guardian. Although the offers in question are not being condemned for using the robot, this is the first time that a robot was used in such a maneuver by the US police.This has made legal experts worried over a grey area of the laws, where there are no existing rules on the threat perception to a robot. The current laws have clearly defined rules about how law enforcement officers are allowed to react in threatening situations. These laws are used to guide decisions when examining cases where there has been a lethal encounter between law enforcement officers and suspects. However, there is no laws governing the decisions a robot is allowed to take in such situations.Although this is the first time a robot was used against a human, bomb disposal units are familiar with a technique of using repurposed robots to deliver explosive devices. The technique involves disposing a bomb by first evacuating the area around the explosive, and using a disposal robot to delivering and blowing up another bomb next to the first one.