ROBOTIC CANINES MAY SOON REPLACE SNIFFER DOGS AT AIRPORTS

The German Shephards, Labradors and Belgian Malinois' used by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) at airports could soon be a thing of the past. They now have still competition from a robotic dog.

According to a report in Times of India, quoting officials, the factory-built industrial canines can sniff explosives at the airports as well as X-ray scan the luggage of passengers with their eyes. The development was discussed at the recent Global Aviation Security Symposium, which was attended by CISF Director General Rajesh Ranjan and Additional DG, MA Ganapathy.

At present, robots can be spotted at airports of several developed countries like US, UK, Canada, Japan, Korea and a few others. These are used for various purposes including passenger information as well as security checks.

Indian agencies mainly depend on manpower for security checks. However, CISF wants to adopt new technologies, considering the global threat in the aviation sector, increasing air travel, new methods of smuggling drugs, gold, explosives etc.

If all works out fine, we could soon get to see robotic canines across airports in the country.

Besides the use of robot canines, the Symposium also saw talk of employing CT scan-based screening of cabin baggage, hand luggage, the latest technology in explosive detectors and biometric control access, among others.