Automated drones check social distancing in Singapore

Singaporeans, beware if you are standing too close to each other.

Drones could be keeping an eye on you from above

and targeting social distancing rule-breakers.

Singapore police are testing two automated drones to help enforce social distancing guidelines.

The machines are developed by Israel's Airobotics.

"My name is Ran Krauss, CEO and co-founder of Airobotics. In the past six years me and my team have invented, designed and manufactured the world's first automated drone."

The eye-in-the-sky robots weigh 22 pounds

and are programmed to track anomalies such as gatherings and congregations

and stream footage to the police.

Airobotics says they can pinpoint locations and zoom into areas that might not be visible to police officers on foot or in vehicles.

It’s the first time automated commercial drones have been approved to fly over a major metropolis, according to the company.

[Ran Krauss:] "I have to say that the Singaporean government is exceptionally innovative and progressive when it comes to adopting technologies and implementing them quickly. I was extremely surprised by their interest and how quickly they pushed forward the technology."

Airobotics has raised $120 million in funding and invested some $100 million to develop the drones.

It’s leasing them to Singapore’s Home Team Science & Technology Agency

and also for business and industrial use in Israel and the United States.

Krauss said the company is in talks with other cities to deploy the new technology.

"We want to see these drones in every city in the world. Predominantly since we believe that this system can really save lives. There are several applications that can relate to that. The simplest one is, you know, if there is a fire somewhere in a city and a drone would usually get there quicker than a fire truck. And being able to transmit video of the fire, of the location into the fire truck, before it even gets there, could really save lives. And that applies to additional emergency response applications. So we think and we believe that this technology will become common in every city around the world."