Robotics and their place in security—are they inevitable? Writing in ASIS International’s Security Technology magazine, Jeffrey A. Slotnick CPP PSP argues that with 99.99 percent uptime and a single-figure hourly rate, robots in security are inevitable.
Robots and robotics have been in our lives for many years, serving valuable purposes. Designed with Meccano parts and powered by a single electric motor, Griffith P. Taylor built the first known ISO compliant robot in 1937. It had five axes of movement, including a grab and rotation, and was automated by using paper tape with punches in it to energise solenoids—creating movement. Today, the U.S. National Institutes of Standards and Technology classifies manufacturing robots into four
categories: articulated robots, Selective Compliance Articulated Robot Arms (SCARA), Delta, and Cartesian. But these are only types of industrial robots. Other types of robots are being increasingly used, in healthcare such as to accomplish the LASIK surgery I had for my correction seven years ago, to undersea, military, and space robotic solutions. Other use cases include teleoperate manipulators, prosthetics, micro-robots, consumer robots, enterprise robots, unmanned aerial vehicles, and more. So, what are robots, really? To discuss this, we must deny our natural impulse to equate actual robots to the science fiction image that has been
Jeffrey A. Slotnick CPP PSP is an ESRM advocate and security management professional focused on Quality Management systems and leading-edge technologies in physical security.
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NZSM
April/May 2022