He Thinks Robots Make Best Prison Guards, Bar None

--R. Warren George thinks his robots ought to be locked up. George’s company, Denning Mobile Robotics of Woburn, Mass., has designed a robot prison guard to patrol while inmates are supposed to be confined to their cells. Once the robot is programmed with the prison floor plan, he said, “It uses several heat and motion detectors to find inmates. The robot relays this information back to a manned base station so a human guard knows exactly what’s going on. With a closed-circuit television, the robot transmits pictures to the base as it patrols cafeterias, day rooms, recreational areas and every other place prisoners shouldn’t be at night.” The robot has a microphone so the base guard can communicate with inmates. None of the units have been sold yet, but wardens are intrigued by its cost-effectiveness, George said. The robot, named Sentry, could be armed with such non-lethal weapons as tear gas and tasers--which the base guard could fire by remote control--but not guns. “No one in this company would ever put guns on it,” he said. “It can’t tell good guys from bad guys.”

--Singer Marie Osmond divorced former Brigham Young University basketball star Steve Craig, ending their 3 1/2-year marriage, an Osmond family spokesman said in Provo, Utah. Osmond won full custody of the couple’s 2-year-old son, Stephen James.

--Four active astronauts--two Soviets and two Americans--met face to face at the 36th congress of the International Astronautical Federation in Stockholm. Joe Engle and Kathy Sullivan of the United States chatted, traded flags and warmly embraced Vladimir Shatalov and Svetlana Savitskaya of the Soviet Union. Shatalov asked how the space shuttle handles. “It’s a very good flying machine,” Engle replied. Later, a scientist in the audience asked Shatalov if he could foresee the day when the Soviets would field an “all-woman flight.” After a long pause, he answered: “The answer is, why not? Women will not stop at the point of only having flights with men. Soon, we will give everything to them.” Engle said he could not have answered the question better himself.

--Officials at the First Baptist Church of Dallas needed six hours to count the cash in the collection plates after the Rev. W. A. Criswell asked the congregation to be extra generous. Parishioners donated $1.85 million Sunday to pay for upkeep of the church’s large downtown complex. “I am on top of the world,” Criswell said. “I am so grateful, I am beside myself.” The church has a history of generosity. It recently gave him a new Mercedes-Benz to mark his 41st year in the ministry.