SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — The San Francisco SPCA is testing out a security robot as a way to combat crime and vandalism on their Mission District campus.
The device is getting a lot of attention and appears to be making a difference. It looks something like an egg laid by a futuristic dinosaur.
It’s an autonomous security robot, essentially a robo rent-a-cop that now patrols the parking lot of the SPCA.
Humans are giving it more attention than the dogs are. The bot has several different sensors to help it detect all types of potential trouble.
And when its batteries are getting low, it knows how to park itself on its docking station.
The San Francisco SPCA has named one robot K-9 and plastered it with decays of dogs and cats. While it’s cute and a bit of a selfie magnet, it costs the non-profit $6 an hour and works around the clock.
The non-profit’s president says they are trying this because the situation with the homeless encampments and crime associated with them had gotten so bad that their volunteers couldn’t even walk the dogs for adoption around the facility.
It’s only been a month into their three-month trial period with the security bot, but the SF SPCA says they’ve seen a decrease in the encampments around their facility and a noticeable drop in crime.WHAT OTHERS ARE CLICKING ON:
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