The dawn of a REAL Robocop? Machines armed with thermal imaging, radar and cameras that its designers say could help prevent another Sandy Hook

  • The 5-foot, 300-pound R5 Autonomous Data Machine was dreamed up by its creators in the wake of the tragedy at Connecticut's Sandy Hook Elementary
  • 'You are never going to have an armed officer in every school':
    William Santana Li, a co-founder of manufacturer Knightscope. hopes to create a tool that will actually help prevent crimes
  • While they would eliminate some jobs, the makers hope the R5 will create jobs in the form of skilled analysts watching for crime through the eyes of the robots

By Daily Mail Reporter

Published: 21:15 EST, 1 December 2013 | Updated: 10:23 EST, 2 December 2013


A Silicon Valley startup is poised to replace the everyday security guard with high tech robots the company plans to introduce to the world on Thursday.

The 300 pound R5 Autonomous Data Machine looks like a hybrid of R2-D2 and the robot from Lost in Space.

More than just yelling ‘danger,’ manufacturer Knightscope hopes the machines will actually help predict crimes and even cut current rates in half.

And its inventors say it was a recent school shooting that actually inspired them to create the R5.

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Borne out of tragedy: The 5-foot-tall, 300-pound robot was dreamed up by its creators at Sunnyvale, California company Knightscope in the wake of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary

Borne out of tragedy: The 5-foot-tall, 300-pound robot was dreamed up by its creators at Sunnyvale, California company Knightscope in the wake of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary. A publicity photo shows how the R5 might look in a school setting

'You are never going to have an armed officer in every school': Instead of being armed with guns, the R5 will use cameras and other surveillance mechanisms to alert off-site analysts to the possibility of an impending crime

'You are never going to have an armed officer in every school': Instead of being armed with guns, the R5 will use cameras and other surveillance mechanisms to alert off-site analysts to the possibility of an impending crime (publicity photo)

‘We founded Knightscope after what happened at Sandy Hook,’ Knightscope co-founder William Santana Li told the New York Times.

According to Li, the idea was to put the R5, not just where guards already exist, but where they haven’t yet or may never go.

‘You are never going to have an armed officer in every school,’ he explained.

Knightscope sees the mobile robot as a security tool that will also one day be placed in businesses and even act as a neighborhood watch in residential areas.

The company appears to understand that successfully gaining a foothold in the market could mean the elimination of many of the 1.3 million private security jobs in the United States.

They note the savings companies could gain from firing the already low-paid, largely non-union workers in favor of even cheaper—at least in the long run—robotic guards.

With minimum wages hovering around $8 per hour, the creators of R5 hope the costs of the robot will be closer to $6.25 per hour according to the New York Times.

But they say the role of the guards who keep their jobs will become more like an analyst.

‘We want to give the humans the ability to do the strategic work,’ Li told the Times. 

HOW DOES THE R5 AUTONOMOUS DATA MACHINE WORK?

The Knightscope K5 Autonomous Data Machine uses something known as a ‘predictive analytics engine’ to assess the level of threat.

Essentially this means it finds patterns in historical and current data that might help it see something out of the ordinary.

The robot feeds real-time on-site data into this engine using a combination of sensors.

These might include a video camera, thermal imaging sensors, a laser range finder, radar, air quality sensors and a microphone.

For instance, a thermal imaging sensor may be able to find if a gunman is lurking in an area that is usually barren.

It combines this data with existing information on the area from local businesses, government and social media sites.

It is then assigned an alert level that determines when the community and the authorities should be notified of a danger.

The R5 autonomous data machine is not armed and is unable to disable a threat on its own.

Instead, if an alert is signalled, the machine will turn on all of its sensors to allow the police to review the situation in real-time.  


Cheap? The 300-pound machine would run on the base of a Segway and its creators home it will cost less than minimum wage to operate

Cheap? The 300-pound machine would run on the base of a Segway and its creators home it will cost less than minimum wage to operate

Bells and whistles: The R5 features a video camera, thermal imaging sensors, a laser range finder, radar, air quality sensors and a microphone...but no gun

Bells and whistles: The R5 features a video camera, thermal imaging sensors, a laser range finder, radar, air quality sensors and a microphone...but no gun

The night watchman of the future is 5 feet tall, weighs 300 pounds and looks a lot like R2-D2 ? without the whimsy. And will work for
The night watchman of the future is 5 feet tall, weighs 300 pounds and looks a lot like R2-D2 ? without the whimsy. And will work for

'Like R2-D2’s evil twin': The hulking device looks like a hybrid of R2-D2 and the robot from Lost in Space. Much like the 1960s sci-fi automaton, the R5 exists to alert its human masters to danger

The strategy, it appears, being to prevent crimes that could be about to happen and the folks at Knightscope are poised to introduce their baby to the world at a press event this coming Thursday.

The R5 will come equipped with video camera, thermal imaging sensors, a laser range finder, radar, air quality sensors and a microphone. The tools will signal to authorities when a presence of actual humans with weapons might be needed.

This use may conjure negative connotations, in some, of the Tom Cruise film Minority Report where so-called ‘pre-cogs’ predict crimes. And the R5’s creators aren’t deaf to these cinematic parallels.

‘We have a different perspective,’ Mr. Li said. ‘We don’t want to think about RoboCop or Terminator, we prefer to think of a mash up Batman, Minority Report and R2-D2.’

Futuristic nightmare? ¿We don¿t want to think about RoboCop or Terminator, we prefer to think of a mash up Batman, Minority Report and R2-D2,' says Li

Futuristic nightmare? ¿We don¿t want to think about RoboCop or Terminator, we prefer to think of a mash up Batman, Minority Report and R2-D2,' says Li

¿Once you enter public space and collect images and sound recordings, you have entered another realm.

¿Once you enter public space and collect images and sound recordings, you have entered another realm. This is the kind of pervasive surveillance that has put people on edge,' says electronic privacy analyst Marc Rotenberg

The robots, at least for now, remain unarmed.

Critics question the ethics of such a machine, whether or not it carries a gun.

‘This is like R2-D2’s evil twin,’ Marc Rotenberg, director of Washington’s Electronic Privacy and Information Center told the Times.

Rotenberg’s issue with such a device seems to be its ability to constantly gather and transmit footage, like a real-time CCTV camera that roams free.

‘There is a big difference between having a device like this one on your private property and in a public space,’ he said. ‘Once you enter public space and collect images and sound recordings, you have entered another realm. This is the kind of pervasive surveillance that has put people on edge.’