Looking like a menacing bumper car with eyes, Robot X is SECOM’s security robot, weighing in at 120kg. It comes in red and blue with a dual-stick joy pad for manual control. Most security cameras have blind spots. Blind spots that the mobile Robot X can cover on 6 wheels.

It will automatically secure a predefined route and in emergencies a human operator can take over if needed. Who wants to pay security guards to do the same job?

[Plastic Pals]

ALSOK is a Japanese electronics/security company that recently released An-9RR, a robotic pair built for security and receptionist tasks.
“Equipped with a camera and several sensors, the main unit (weight: 35kg) is able to recognize a visitor’s face or voice, take reservations, greet people and say goodbye. It also keeps records of people coming into the buildings it guards.”
These seem rather advanced for how cute they look. Though not very intimidating as security robots. Visitors can use the “parent” robot’s touchscreen interface to contact people or learn information about the building in which it’s located. The “kid” robot is smaller and can only be used for security purposes. These things might be cool but they won’t be scaring away any would-be intruders. The folks at ALSOK should talk to Boston Dynamics to see if they can get these security bots mounted on a could BigDogs. Yes, then my army would be marvelou—I mean…
AW CUTE!

[CrunchGear]

Delta Unit is part of the Inspectorbots series of Wireless Video Inspection Robots. It’s a surveillance and reconnaissance bot that is actually fairly affordable. Designed for situations where you need SWAT or a Hazmat team. The Delta can move ahead like an RC car and beam back live footage of the scenario to the control center. No lives are risked.

The bot is equipped with a pan/tilting camera and can be fitted with sensors to detect various poisonous gasses or radiation levels. It’s pretty tough too, with an aircraft grade, anodized aluminum chassis.

Inspectorbots is taking advanced orders for “select US customers.” At $6000, it’s the most affordable bot of it’s type that we know of. Demo video below.
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I really, really thought this was fake when I first saw it. It’s a robot that can launch a net to capture intruders. Double-yeu tee eff. What’s more impressive than the ability to shoot a net is the fact that some company actually made this travesty of a security bot. Created, for some reason, by robot developer Tmsuk Co. Ltd. and security company Alacom Co. LtdIt, it’s called the T-34 and it’s loaded with sensors to detect any nettable guests.
Aside from being the robot equivalent of Spiderman’s wrist, the robot can be controlled via cell phone, and real-time images are transferred to the remote operator. Perhaps this redeeming feature makes it a useful as a surveillance robot. Unless this net is made of polonium-plated Kevlar, I can’t imagine the T-34 being actually able to capture anything except a hearty “haha wut” from its prey.

[AFP]

The Robo Japan 2008 conference kicked off this weekend and one of the cool things being shown off was Bandai’s update to its NetTansor robot with the new NetTansorWeb robot. The robot can be controlled remotely using WiFi and sports sensors to avoid obstacles as it wanders through your home.

It also has a webcam eye that lets users monitor their home when away. So what you have here is a low-budget security ‘bot. But that’s not all. He also supports blogging and news delivery. The sad thing is the robot only has a battery life of 2.5 hours. Who’s gonna guard your home the other 21.5 hours?

[IT Media] VIA [Dvice]

Students at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand have been working on Marvin, the school lab’s $20,000 security ‘bot, for about seven years. He’s named after Marvin the robot from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and it stands for Mobile Autonomous Robotic Vehicle for Indoor Navigation.

He can handle simple conversations, replying with verbal and physical cues, and it also uses it’s shape and voice to display a nice spectrum of emotions, which include happiness and anger. Though it seems to have really embraced the anger side. It patrols the halls of the school thanks to an electric wheelchair motor and when he gets stuck, he doesn’t wait or ask for human help. Instead, he gets kinda pissed and forces his way out of the situation. So there’s probably a clean up crew on call due to his mood.

The students talk with him fairly often, since they have to ask Marvin’s permission to get into the labs. Marvin then makes sure they don’t need any assistance. But if someone isn’t authorized to enter, his eyes will glow red, a flashlight on its face will turn on, and Marvin will tell the intruder that they aren’t allowed in that area. Marvin can still get scared. When he does, he’ll wheel away, with his head tucked between its shoulders.

[Blogging The Singularity] VIA [Dvice]

If you’re a fan of Doctor Who, you’ve no doubt wanted to have a Dalek do your spying for you. Wil Harris of ChannelFlip got to play with the Dalek security cam that does just that. It was built by a “top secret London security firm” for an “anonymous client.” The camera can transmit high quality streaming video to a flat panel-equipped base station 300 feet away, where it is recorded to a hard drive for playback. Harris estimates that the build cost is in excess of $1,500.

[ChannelFlip]