The main types
| Type | Typical sites | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Outdoor patrol robots | Parking lots, campuses, logistics yards | Weather rating, slope and curb handling, license plate reading |
| Indoor patrol robots | Lobbies, corridors, warehouses, data centers | Elevator and door integration, thermal and gas sensing |
| Legged robots | Industrial sites, inspection rounds | Stairs and rough ground; often more inspection than security |
| Security drones | Perimeters, large sites | FAA rules apply; see the drones guide |
Security drones are covered in the drones guide, since flying one for a business needs an FAA remote pilot certificate and airspace approval near airports.
What they do well
- Visible deterrence. A large robot on patrol signals the site is watched. Its value depends on people knowing someone responds to what it sees.
- Consistent patrols. Every round, on time, with a log and video to prove it.
- Sensors a guard lacks: thermal cameras, license plate recognition, wireless device detection, and in some models gas or temperature sensing.
- Coverage in dull hours, such as a parking structure overnight, where the job is mostly watching nothing happen.
What they cannot do
A robot cannot intervene, give first aid, escort a visitor or use judgment in a tense encounter. Every alert still needs a person to review it and decide what to do, whether that is a guard on site, a remote monitoring center or the police. Before buying, answer who watches the alerts at 3 a.m. and how fast they can reach the site. If the honest answer is nobody, a robot records incidents rather than preventing them.
Privacy and recording laws
A patrolling robot records video, often audio, and sometimes faces, license plates and phone signals. Several kinds of law can apply, and they vary by state:
- Audio recording. State wiretap laws govern recording conversations. Some states require the consent of everyone in the conversation. Many businesses turn audio recording off unless counsel approves it.
- Biometrics. Face recognition can fall under biometric privacy laws, such as Illinois's Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), with notice and consent requirements and private lawsuits.
- Employee monitoring. Some states require notice to employees before electronic monitoring, and labor law limits surveillance of protected activity.
- Data retention and access. Decide how long footage is kept, who can see it, and how you respond to requests from police or in litigation.
Post clear signage, write a policy, and have a lawyer review the setup for each state where the robot runs.
The specifications that matter
- Patrol runtime and charging: can it cover the whole night, and where does it charge?
- Weather and terrain rating for outdoor units: rain, heat, snow, slopes and curbs.
- Camera coverage, low-light and thermal performance.
- Integration with your video management system and alarm monitoring.
- Two-way intercom, if you want an operator to speak through it.
- Cybersecurity: encrypted video, patching, and who at the vendor can access your feeds.
- Vandalism resistance, and what the contract says if it is damaged.
Running a trial
Ask for a trial of at least a few weeks on your own site, covering nights, weekends and bad weather. Count the alerts the robot raises, how many were real, how many were false (a blowing bag, a cat, a shadow), and how long each took your team to review. A robot that floods the monitoring desk with false alarms trains people to ignore it. Also note how often it got stuck, lost its position or needed a person to rescue it.
Talk to your guard contractor early. Some security companies deploy robots themselves and fold them into the guard contract, and a combined price can be simpler than buying the robot separately.
How they are sold
Security robots are usually sold as a subscription with the software, monitoring dashboard and maintenance included. Check term, uptime commitments, damage terms and data ownership; see robots as a service. Browse models in the service robot directory, and for general robot standards read robot safety.
Before you buy
- Define the risk and the area, and compare the robot with cameras, lighting and access control.
- Decide who reviews alerts, and how fast they can respond.
- Walk the patrol route for terrain, weather, doors and Wi-Fi or cellular coverage.
- Confirm integration with your cameras and monitoring center.
- Turn off audio and face recognition unless a lawyer approves them for your states.
- Write a retention and access policy for recordings, and post signage.
- Check subscription terms, damage terms and data ownership.