
A robot life preserver in the Greek refugee crisis - fforflo
http://www.wired.com/2016/01/a-robot-life-preserver-goes-to-work-in-the-greek-refugee-crisis/
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jonesb6
Two things I thought of

1) This isn't entirely a case of migrants not having access to safe
transportation. In many cases migrants will intentionally puncture or disable
their vehicle if they see the coast guard coming their way. They know if a
Greek boat picks them out of the water, they will not be taken back to their
point of origin. But what will happen if they grab on to a strange robot? I
would not be surprised if people actively avoid the robots during testing and
instead opt only to be rescued by an observing vehicle.

2) It's really cool that the Greek government reached out to the Texas A&M
University’s Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue. I'm sure these
robots are very affordable and the Greek government will happily foot the bill
in order to lessen this humanitarian crisis. /s. Interestingly there is not
one dollar sign in the article, however at the end it does mention the
research team is willing to leave at lease one robot behind when they are done
with their research.

