Prepare to be stunned by mini RoboCops

"DEAD or alive, you're coming with me."

RoboCop, the vigilante hero of the Hollywood movie, is on the way, but the real-life version will be just a couple of feet high and carrying a stun gun.

Two US companies are teaming up to produce a robot that will carry a taser, the controversial electric shock device used to stun suspects.

They are developing the robots, which are similar to the tracked devices used by bomb-disposal squads, to carry the tasers - in addition to cameras and microphones - and go into high-risk situations and 'pacify' dangerous troublemakers.

The devices have already provoked controversy, with analysts comparing them to the notorious Terminator movies robots that were dedicated to killing people. One sceptical Scottish policeman dubbed the invention "K9 with a taser".

Tasers stun suspects by shooting darts at them and then delivering a powerful electric charge along metal wires. They are widely used in North America and have been introduced in the UK, where they are used as a non-lethal alternative to conventional firearms.

The use of robots is becoming more widespread.

A new £300m hospital being built at Larbert in Stirlingshire will be the first in the UK to use a fleet of robots to transport goods and equipment through the building.

The new stun machines are being produced by two American companies: Taser International, which makes the stun guns, and iRobot, which produces robots used by the military for bomb disposal and spying, and which also manufactures vacuum cleaning robots for the home.

Spy robots made by iRobot have been used by the military in Afghanistan to sneak into caves and look for Taliban fighters, sparing soldiers the risk of being killed or injured by booby-traps or ambushes.

The companies will unveil their first taser-equipped model at a technology show next month and hope it can be used by police and security firms. No price or name for the system has yet been announced.

The machines are operated using a computerised control panel which includes a screen showing what the robot can see. The panel is portable and could be operated by a police officer in a van or undercover.

The devices could crawl towards a suspect hiding in a house and use their tank-style tracks to climb over obstacles and steps. They could also be sent into areas where suspects are fighting and might turn on an officer. A robot could approach a suspect and then fire the taser from about 10 metres away. Other uses include patrolling prison fences or overseeing demonstrations. Robots standing guard could go into 'sleep mode' to conserve power for many days and then be activated if a CCTV controller or intruder system picked up something suspicious.

Analysts are divided on whether the new stun device will lead to robot police able to arrest or even kill suspects on their own initiative.

The US military has already used unmanned aircraft to launch attacks against terrorists in Afghanistan and the Middle East. So far, these devices have only fired missiles on the say-so of a human operator. However, advances in technology, such as facial-recognition software, have raised the spectre of robot aircraft being allowed to hunt and kill enemies on their own.

John Pike, director of US-based military research organisation GlobalSecurity.org, said: "It's one more step in that direction. I think at some point toward the end of the next decade, you're going to start seeing RoboCops or a Terminator. We may see autonomous robots capable of inflicting lethal force."

Tasers were first used by the police in the US and were soon introduced in the UK. It is thought the same will happen with the latest stun devices.

Brian Baglow, chief executive of technology and communications marketing firm Indoctrimat, said: "It's an interesting development and what happens first in America tends to make its way across here sooner or later, just like tasers did. But I don't think it shows we're on the way to a Terminator-style invasion of the cyborgs yet.

"The key thing is the decisions are in the hands of human controllers. We are still as far from having the artificial intelligence necessary for them to take decisions as 10 years ago."

Joe Grant, general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, said: "I can see some possible uses for this, especially in a hostage situation. But given how long it takes right now to get taser support to officers in difficult situations, I can't see why K9 with a taser trundling down the road at two miles an hour would be the solution."

• The earliest known robot was developed in 1206 by the Arab inventor and engineer Ibn Ismail Ibn al-Razzaz Al-Jazari, who also invented the crankshaft. His robots, models of musicians in a boat, entertained guests at royal parties. His mechanism had a drum machine with pegs that bumped into levers which operated the percussion. The drummer could play different rhythms and drum patterns.

The word 'robot' was coined by Czech writer Karel Capek in his play RUR (Rossum's Universal Robots), which premiered in 1920. The word comes from the Czech noun 'robota', which means forced labour or drudgery and is also the general word for 'work' in many Slavic languages.

The first digitally operated robot was invented in the 1950s in the United States.