Robots to protect Brazilian cities during World Cup

HOUSTON - Brazil has secured a 7.2 million US dollars deal with iRobot, a US-based company that makes defense and security robots for the US military, who will create 30 new robots tasked with protecting and monitoring 12 cities during this year's World Cup, US media reported Tuesday.

The robots, called PackBots from iRobot, a Massachusetts-based company, are pre-programmed to analyze suspicious-looking objects in 12 cities hosting World Cup match-ups across Brazil.

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The robots will start monitoring from June in the run up to FIFA 2014 World Cup event, according to the online marketing and publicity services website PRWeb.

Each robot can fit in a backpack, reach up to nine miles per hour whilst traversing all kinds of terrain and can travel in water up to two meters deep.

PackBot's other attributes include a state-of-the-art GPS, video image display, system monitoring, electronic compass, temperature sensors. The robot is manipulated with an integrated Pentium-based computer.

The sleek PackBot robot system, designed by iRobot, made its debut in 2002 in Afghanistan, where it helped soldiers clear bunkers, caves, collapsed building and to cross minefields. The versatile machine was used again in 2003 in Iraq in urban warfare situations and to search vehicles, according to Robohub, an online platform dedicated specifically for robotics.

By 2007, more than 800 of these military robots were in use throughout Afghanistan, Iraq and several other countries. The PackBot was also the first remote controlled robot to enter the Fukushima nuclear facility after the East Japan Earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.