The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to approve a policy that allows police to deploy robots capable of using lethal force. What was once a fear of conspiracy theorists is now becoming a public nightmare.

Boston Dynamics, initially a research and development company receiving the majority of its funding from the U.S. military and DARPA, has more recently been financed by Google, SoftBank and now Hyundai to create humanoid and lethal robotics.

Many people first became familiar with Boston Dynamics in 2005 when they released "BigDog" a quadruple robot. The U.S. military held trials with the nightmare machine but determined at the time it was too noisy.

The video of "BigDog" made its rounds on the internet and sent a shockwave to many people who feared these robots could be used in the future against American citizens.

While the San Francisco Police Department did not disclose where they acquired their robots, they did claim that no robots were obtained from military surplus, but some were purchased with federal grant money. The department said while it has no plans to arm robots with guns, they would deploy robots equipped with explosive charges. They also confirmed that they have been acquiring ground robots since 2010.