Startup Wants Robot Dogs To Take A Bite Out Of Crime

An Atlanta-based startup wants to use robot dogs for security and already has some customers barking with joy.

Undaunted started making robot dogs to improve security in high-crime areas of Atlanta, and one of its dogs helped lead to an arrest in a murder investigation, per Newsweek. The company told the Daily Caller News Foundation that this is the next evolution of security for apartment complexes and multi-family homes.

Undaunted was conceived out a moment of desperation, Chris Ozgo, a cofounder of Undaunted, told the DCNF. David Cummings, a founder and partner in Atlanta Ventures, purchased 56 buildings spanning over 13 square blocks in the South Downtown neighborhood of Atlanta, a high-crime part of the city. Cummings soon discovered it was a “wasteland” for security and he spent over $400,000 per year for two 24-hour armed security guards that were not effective at policing the area. Even worse, the abandoned buildings were virtual homeless encampments.

This is where Undaunted robot dogs came in to stop crime in the community.

The mechanical canines are “building a safer community and stopping crime. It’s also like making it a place that people actually want to live, which historically hasn’t been the case for a lot of these places,” Ozgo remarked.

“Once we set up the robot, someone jumped a fence, as happens every night. We steered the robots towards the person, and they were off the property in under 90 seconds. And, we’re like, wow, we’ve got something here,” he told the DCNF.

Robot dogs are being developed for military applications, as the Daily Caller News Foundation reported, but Undaunted appears to have found a civilian use for them.

Undaunted is not the only company aiming to improve security with robot dogs.

Asylon Robotics in late October announced a $17 million deal with Securitas, one of the largest security companies in the world, to provide 26 autonomous robotic security systems, including a mix of aerial drones and ground robots, according to Forbes.