This Security Robot Watches Your Every Move

A new robotic security guard certainly looks friendly, but that doesn't make it any less vigilant

A team at the UK's University of Birmingham created Bob the security robot to see how a robot would handle an office environment

Bob scans its surroundings with 3D sensors to build a picture of the floor plan. If anything has changed since its last scan — a door left open, say, or furniture rearranged — Bob will know about it.

Bob is part of the STRANDS project, an initiative by a collection of European universities to build semiautonomous robotic assistants for human environments. Dr. Nick Hawes, the project lead, says Bob is good at what he was designed for. Read more...