- The robotics startup Cobalt offers security teams robots that patrol offices and report anomalies.
- These robots have been used for everything from badge checks to crowd control for evacuations.
- Despite surveillance concerns, security teams rave about the robots' ability to protect employees.
For some, the phrase "robotic security guard" conjures up images of dystopian all-seeing machines or the omnipresent "Big Brother" from George Orwell's novel "1984."
While not quite as menacing, the robotics startup Cobalt makes 5-foot-1 robots meant to replace human security guards. They patrol offices and report any observed anomalies. Cobalt's human security analysts can also communicate with office workers through a screen on the robot and assess the more complicated situations the robots encounter.
Travis Deyle and Erik Schluntz, former Google and SpaceX employees, respectively, founded the startup in 2016. The two had quit their jobs and decided they wanted to start a company together but didn't know what to focus on. They decided to interview a lot of people in a variety of roles and asked them: "If you had a magic wand to fix any problem in your job, what would you fix?"
After interviewing multiple security teams, they learned that these teams wished they had robots to complete the rote tasks of human guards.
At first, Deyle and Schluntz were surprised, as they questioned how robots would be able to stop an intruder. The security teams told Deyle and Schluntz that because of insurance concerns, human guards weren't allowed to make physical contact with intruders, either. With this knowledge, the cofounders realized that robots could fulfill the observing and reporting duties of security guards at lower costs.
Cobalt's robots are fitted with more than 60 sensors, including thermal cameras, temperature and humidity sensors, and badge readers. The robots integrate into a company's security network, allowing them to respond automatically to triggered alarms. Using their knowledge of past security incidents, the robots can determine whether a situation needs to be escalated — for example, if the robot spots a broken window versus a faulty alarm.
According to Mike LeBlanc, Cobalt's president and chief operating officer, the company's value proposition became clearer during the pandemic, since the robots could replace unwieldy security teams that were no longer necessary in empty offices. In large workplaces, robots were able to more efficiently patrol multiple floors and respond faster to alarms. In smaller offices that required only a single guard, robots could take over all security tasks, from managing visitors to escorting employees to their cars late at night.
"There's such high turnover in security guards," LeBlanc said. "So the robots are actually able to fill these posts at a lower cost. People love that they can automate this and get the same thing every time, rather than paying more for someone where they're going to have varied results."
Not just a security-guard robot
Many Cobalt customers are finding creative ways to use their robots beyond security.
As workers returned to the office, DoorDash, for example, had the robots' temperature sensors check employees for fevers and used its badge readers to figure out whether COVID-19 wellness surveys had been completed, according to Chris Cherry, DoorDash's head of global safety and security.
Even as pandemic lockdown measures like mandatory masking eased and people returned to the office, security teams found new uses for the robots.
The fintech startup Ally Financial's senior director of physical security, Bill Davis, said Cobalt robots alerted workers to dangerously high levels of carbon monoxide after contractors cleaned out an enclosed parking garage with gas-operated power washers. In another example, a Cobalt robot discovered someone impersonating another employee after a routine badge check.
Ralph Parks, the senior safety and security manager at the automation company Woven Planet, told Insider that he had standing weekly meetings with the Cobalt team to brainstorm use cases for the robots. His company has used the robots for everything from air-quality checks during the 2020 California wildfires to WiFi-strength indication to crowd control during office evacuations.
Employee privacy concerns
While security teams have embraced Cobalt's robots, they say they've encountered employee concerns around surveillance and privacy.
Parks said the true priority of security teams was to protect employees.
"I get that a lot of times. They say, 'Are you Big Brother?'" Parks said.
LeBlanc told Insider that Cobalt's robots were designed with these fears in mind. The robots look like a "piece of high-end office furniture" to match the "frictionless environment" of modern-day tech companies and help them blend into the background, he said.
"Buildings are already filled with cameras everywhere," LeBlanc said. "People are already being watched all around these places by security, so there's not actually a difference of having some cameras on a robot."
Other startups in this space have faced controversy. The police-robot startup Knightscope found itself in hot water after several publicized incidents, including a robot knocking down a toddler and running over his foot and another ignoring a woman's cries for help.
Both LeBlanc and security teams said the key to gaining acceptance from employees was education around the robots' purpose.
"There's Big Brother that's spying on people, and then there's Big Brother where you're walking down a dark alley and there's a bunch of bad people coming toward you," Parks said. "That's what the purpose of the robots is."