Innovation Heroes: Will these AI-driven security robots strengthen America?

As crime rates have skyrocketed over the last few years across the United States, the urgent question on many leaders’ minds is:

“How can we keep citizens safe?”

One startup has made it their mission to find an answer.

On the latest episode of Innovation Heroes, a podcast by SHI, host Ed McNamara meets with Knightscope cofounder and CEO, William Santana Li, to find out how he plans to stave off crime in America with the help of Autonomous Security Robots (ASRs).

“When we started the company, people in Silicon Valley told us that it would never work – that the hardware and software were too complicated,” says Li. “So, like any good entrepreneur, we ignored everybody and raised north of $120 million dollars from 35,000 investors. Clearly, there is a rather large cross section of the US that not only believes in the technology but who also know the market for crime will never collapse and know that the technology works.”

Founded in 2013, Knightscope has built a fleet of security robots that is now patrolling the U.S. nationwide in healthcare and storage facilities, airports, manufacturing plants, corporate campuses, and more. Their clients include the federal government, public institutions, and Fortune 1000 commercial businesses.

“Part of the technology is analogous to a self-driving car,” says Li. “We use LiDAR sonar proximity sensors, accelerometers, and a bunch of crazy software for the machine to basically create its own map, find itself in that map, and then navigate consistently on its own. The other part [of the technology] is that the machines generate over 90 terabytes of data a year that no human is going to be able to process. We put all that into a digestible format on a user interface, which gives officers eyes, ears, and a voice on the ground in multiple locations at the same time.”

To find out more about how Knightscope is transforming the security industry, listen to the full conversation here.