The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is taking a big step into the world of robotics with the introduction of its own wireless jamming robot dogs. The new robots are designed to work as part of police raids, and they can easily overload home networks, disrupting devices relying on Wi-Fi and other wireless communication networks.
DHS unveiled the robot dogs at the 2024 Border Security Expo. The dog is called NEO, and it looks a lot like Boston Dynamics’ Spot, as well as other robot dogs like the Xiaomi CyberDog seen in the header above. But NEO is more than just a showpiece.
The DHS’s wireless jamming robot dog is designed to enter potentially dangerous situations and provide officers with remote eyes and ears, all while also allowing them to communicate with those within the environment directly. You can see a similar robot in action in the video embedded in this article.
According to Toms Hardware, the DHS first came up with this robotic four-legged jammer when a child abuse suspect used his doorbell camera to spot FBI agents at his door when they were serving a search warrant. The suspect opened fire on the agents with an assault rifle, killing two of them and injuring three more.
With wireless jamming robot dogs like NEO, though, the DHS would be able to completely jam those types of devices and approach the situation more safely for everyone involved. This development is just one of many ways that law enforcement is working to catch up to the technological advancements we’ve made over the past several years.
While NEO might not be able to affect any hard-wired devices, especially smart devices, it can still disrupt the radio frequencies that many wireless IoT devices rely on, which could give law enforcement the edge they need in some situations. Still, what the DHS is doing is nothing nearly as drastic as the rifle-toting robots we’ve seen from other countries.
