One Robot May Have Drowned But The Industry Lives On

The autonomous security robot affectionately named “Steve” has been tweeting from the beyond. The bot gained fame after tossing itself into a pool of water at Washington Harbour in Georgetown in July. The property now has a replacement bot named “Rosie,” Steve’s sister, according to its Twitter. Indicating that despite Steve’s accident, the demand for robot security guards is still there.

The Property Manager at Washington Harbour, Allison Johnson, told Phys.org that Rosie, and previously Steve, is shaping up to be a great addition to the security there. The robots are K5 robots from the company Knightscope that was founded in the wake of the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre and the Boston Marathon bombing.

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The robots are used to monitor buildings but not to replace actual humans. They can stream 360 video and are equipped with forensic abilities, autonomous presence and other sensors. The Knightscope website says the bots are “friendly community tools used exclusively to deliver relevant and real-time information to the appropriate authorities.”

The company handled the incident in a lighthearted manner almost immediately, and said it would be sending a new bot to Washington Harbour, which it delivered on. After Steve was sent back to Knightscope headquarters the company ran some tests to see just went wrong. The company released a statement after checking Steve’s partially damaged “black box.” The statement said, “A K5 Autonomous Data Machine (Machine Identification Number 42) was patrolling a local mixed-use development in Washington, D.C. when at approximately 2:13pm EDT the machine veered away from its patrol zone and made an unscheduled stop into a property water feature.”

The release detailing the incident also noted that the company was already working on research and innovation to improve “wheel slip and cliff detection capabilities as well as adding a new wheel skid detection capability.” The release and report said that the company believes this technology had to be tested and used in the real world to improve.

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Other companies like Gamma 2 Robotics and Robot Security Systems, are investing in the robot security industry as well. The company Cobalt has a similar robot to Steve/Rosie. It monitors shopping areas or office buildings to essentially make sure everything is in order, the company’s co-founder Travis Deyle told Phys. Deyle called this the “dawn” of autonomous security robots.

While Steve’s future isn’t as bright as other bots’ he’s been tweeting up a storm and even making jokes about his replacement.