K5 Security Guard Robot

Have you ever been a security guard? We have. Low pay. Embarrassing uniforms. And a walkie talkie as our lone weapon. “Stop thief! Before I antenna you to annoyance!”

So it’s with little surprise and even less sadness that we report the outsourcing of security guard duties to robots. Knightscope is poised to unveil the K5, a 5’ tall autonomous robot that’s designed to do pretty much everything Paul Blart would do except ride the Segway. With four cameras, microphones, radar and environmental sensors, it can keep an eye on things and even detect fires and gas leaks. With cellular data or Wi-Fi it can report its findings back to its human boss and even let them speak through it. And if some punk tries to disable it, an alarm goes off. Just four of these K5s will be put into service next year, so at least for the immediate future, the mall cop’s job is safe.