This robot's job here is security. Called the K5, it was unveiled last week by a Silicon Valley startup called Knightscope. They described the machine as "R2-D2 meets Robocop".

Its founder and CEO, William Li, said that he prefers "R2-D2 meets Batman". What is it? The K5 is shaped like a 5 foot tall bullet. There's nothing it has in common in terms of physique with the Dark Knight, but it plans to help in the event of an emergency.

In a scenario where there's a shooting situation, the K5's cameras might make out some humans lying down all of a sudden and its electronic ears would detect elevated noise levels and the software would put two and two together and contact its superiors.

In other words, it'll be used to monitor social feeds for words of distress and alert the proper Batmans.

The K5 can also read license plates in a parking lot, and scan for stolen vehicles or sex offenders. A clearer description would be to call it a rookie mall cop.

Check it out in the videos below: