Knightscope Autonomous Robots: A Glimpse of Future Cops?
A Mountain View startup has developed security robots that it hopes will help humans with the job of crime fighting in the future. Knightscope Inc’s mission is to achieve a 50% reduction in crime.The fleet of Knightscope Autonomous robots are equipped with surveillance and broadcasting technology that helps them patrol and prevent illegal activities in public places.
Using high definition 360 degree infra-red camera’s, Knightscope Autonomous Robots help to keep the peace by sending their recordings to a security network.
The robots are also fitted with a microphone that enables communication with humans in the vicinity of the future security bots.
The above two features in the current version, the Knightscope K5, are complemented by a sound detection system that also monitors audio in the robots’ current environment for suspicious activity. Knightscope autonomous robots can use the information they record to predict criminal events, as well as notify the authorities in real time.
Knightscope’s security network means that even if surveillance robots don’t end up replacing humans in the future, they will still play an integral part in our security. The K5 robot is already being tried out by a number of corporate companies in the Silicon Valley area, including some shopping malls and data centres.
Founded by former law enforcement agent Stacey Dean Stephens and William Li, Knightscope is staffed by a number of tech entrepreneurs and engineers – all driven by the quest to keep our communities safer.
The company is headquartered in the heart of Silicon Valley in Mountain View, California and was founded in April of 2013. Its goal is to provide innovative solutions in a security industry blighted by high turnover rates because of the monotony of most security tasks. Knightscope autonomous robots do away with these concerns thanks to their smart autonomous technology.
With Knightscope looking at working with organisations that will take the K5 on 2-3 year subscriptions for round the clock deployments, the company is aiming to help lessen the load of security and surveilence on campuses.
Events in several US cities that have resulted in the loss of many innocent lives led the team to believe that they could harness the power of technology in order to make public places safer.
Currently, a basic version of Knightscope’s autonomous security robots costs less than the average minimum wage for security personnel at $6.25 per hour.
The company is not angling its robots as future replacements for security and law enforcement personnel, but instead as an additional set of eyes and ears to assist them in their work.
Video: Knightscope Autonomous Robots in Action
The team has developed Knightscope Autonomous Robots to utilise predictive analytics and autonomous technology to root out unlawful activities wherever the security robots patrol. Knightscope K5 robots are not armed, or bulletproof however, but are built to withstand a substantial amount of force or vandalism.
Each of the surveillance robots is programmed to operate in a preset geo-fenced area within which it then undertakes random security patrols. K5 robots travel at reasonable and safe speeds of between 1 and 3 miles per hour, although they are capable of moving faster, and are guided by an array of sensors as well as GPS and LIDAR data.
The K5 version of the Knightscope autonomous robots is also smart enough to detect temperature levels, humidity, or CO2.
Other sensors fitted on the robots include proximity sensors, licence plate recognition cameras, GPS, and directional microphones among others. Knightscope autonomous robots also have fail-safe procedures such as remote wiping of security data to ensure it never falls in the wrong hands.
The autonomous crime fighters constantly monitor their systems and can dock onto charging stations by themselves to ensure consistent power and performance during patrols. This ensures there are never any long periods of downtime for the Knightscope autonomous robots and the machines can transfer data to a security server or the cloud.
Designed to be operational 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, the Knightscope autonomous robots may just be a glimpse into the future of security and law enforcement. Autonomous vehicles and other robotics have already or are set to take over human tasks in the near future, – why not our security as well?
