AST Digital Magazine September 2017 AST Digital Magazine September 2017 | Page 49

Volume 16
September 2017 Edition
$20 billion program that uses the AI technology
that helped NASA land a rover on Mars to im-
prove how it drills for oil.
(See how BP engineers use robotic ultrasound technology
to detect and repair issues like corrosion before they ever
become a problem. Courtesy of BP and YouTube)
These examples are just the tip of the iceberg for
the uses associated with robotics in a number of
sectors – and we’re just getting started.
Within security, the same kinds of tech-
nology are already being used to take
the protection of assets even further
and deliver more streamlined business
operations.
However, robots in shopping malls are not going
to take us to the next level in providing real value
for security through robotics.
We must look further than that.
Increasing Value of Security Through
Robotics
The security coverage that a robot offers in the
case of a shopping mall can be easily overshad-
owed by the fact that the machines seem to serve
to entertain the population.
Instead, security robots can best be uti-
lized for more high-level roles, such as
in critical infrastructure sites, corporate
campuses and educational facilities,
where wide, expansive spaces require
continuous protection.
The S5 is the world’s first commercial outdoor security robot
that can function in various terrain conditions: road, off-road,
grass and gravel. The strong surface grip allows the robots
to surmount level differences, bumps and ditches. The robot
can operate in all types of weather conditions (rain, snow, fog,
smoke, etc.), with temperatures ranging from -4F to 100F.
In these particular locales, security can be dif-
ficult to achieve, as cost, location and lack of
resources make the logistics of deployment dif-
ficult.
But therein lies the chief argument for increas-
ing the value of security through robotics: the
extension of the security operations center and
the manned guarding contingent on which these
facilities heavily rely.
Armed with advanced video analytics
capabilities and panoramic coverage of
a scene, robots that are concentrated
in these areas offer security leaders the
ability to place “feet on the ground” in a
cost-effective, value-based way, saving
significant cost on per-hour contracting
of human guards.
This allows the more mundane jobs typically as-
sociated with remote locations to be reassigned
to robots, thereby saving human abilities to be
used in more important tasks, such as within a
security operations center, where sensors can
be evaluated and possible threats can be more
effectively thwarted.
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