Smart Robots: Robots perform security guard duties

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Smart robots are assuming a larger role in our lives these days. And increasingly, they're performing jobs that many of us would rather not do. One of them is a security guard. CGTN's Hendrik Sybrandy reports.

Admiral Security in Bethesda, Maryland, just a few kilometers from Washington, D.C., has a new face of security. And it's not a human one. Ramsee, the robot, is one of this company's new security guards. So far, he's been a model employee.

JUSTIN DAVIS, VP GAMMA 2 ROBOTICS CORPORATE DEV'T "Robot's never going to show up late. It's never going to call in sick. It's never going to drink on the job or nap on the job. They are reliable."

Justin Davis is with Gamma 2 Robotics, a Colorado firm that's developed some of the first security robots in the U.S. At a time when security providers are looking for new and cost-effective ways to protect their clients, a robot like Ramsee is one potential answer.

HENDRIK SYBRANDY DENVER "Ramsee could come in handy because Davis says there's huge turnover among the estimated 1.1 million, often low-paid security guards in the U.S. who patrol buildings like this."

JUSTIN DAVIS, VP GAMMA 2 ROBOTICS CORPORATE DEV'T "They're just the dull, the dirty, the dangerous, the repetitive, at three in the morning where humans really do not want to be doing this job. That's what the robot has always been developed for, and now we're at a place where it's ready to do this job."

Ramsee is equipped with four cameras and sensors that help it detect heat, smoke, humidity, gases, and motion. He can send alerts to a monitoring center which can then dispatch a first responder.

BRIAN JOHNSON, CEO GAMMA 2 ROBOTICS CORPORATE DEV'T "Rather than send a human guard to go explore what that situation is about, why not send Ramsee to go explore it. He can handle the smoke. He can certainly detect it."

At 65-thousand dollars per machine, with a predicted useful life of three years, these robots could save labor costs for customers who want to keep their employees and facilities safe. Ten Ramsees have been built so far. The robots only patrol indoors. One went for a test-drive recently at the offices of Denver, Colorado's mayor.

MICHAEL HANCOCK DENVER MAYOR "This is the wave of the future: to be able to see the kind of things that it can do and ultimately as they develop them out to do even more in the future. It's going to be very fascinating."

Ramsee is programmed to speak "Why are robots so well-suited to doing security".

Facial recognition and other high-level detection skills may be just around the corner.

BRIAN JOHNSON, CEO GAMMA 2 ROBOTICS CORPORATE DEV'T " I have one that charges itself right outside my office so you have to watch where you're walking."

Lacking only human intuition, Ramsee needs no supervision and is always on time for his shift. In the security realm, what could be better than that Hendrik Sybrandy, CGTN, Denver.