Silicon Valley-based Knightscope, Inc. designs, engineers, builds and deploys fully autonomous security robots across the U.S. (Knightscope)
Artificial intelligence may soon be coming to a Tribal casino near you.
“Buddy” is the new, ultra-alert security guard at Pechanga Casino and Resort.
The impetus for the robot—that zips across the Pechanga lobby and even introduces himself to patrons—was extra security, following the Las Vegas shooting on October 1, 2017. Buddy uses bot sensors to navigate a crowd with high-definition video and audio recorders, in addition to thermal imaging.
“The world that we’re in today, we got to be forward-thinking and creative and out of the box,” Robert Krauss, vice president of public safety for Pechanga, told CBS.
Buddy’s stationary counterpart Rudy monitors visitors entering and exiting the casino.
While Pechanga intends to increase its bot security, the resort will not replace human job opportunities with technology, said Krauss, describing the robots as merely a “tool.”
In summer 2018, Twin Arrows Navajo Casino Resort on the Navajo Nation was believed to be the first casino in Arizona and second casino in the U.S. to introduce robot security to supplement existing personnel. Twin Arrows’ “K5” bot, adorned with the Twin Arrows name and logo, navigates Twin Arrows’ parking lot 24/7, and can read 300 license plates in one minute. The robot can also serve as a two-way intercom, though the autonomous technology does not require anyone to remote control it.
“It’s not a one-to-one replacement for a security guard; it’s really just a way of taking their security team and bringing it to the next level by adding additional intelligence,” said Stacy Stephens, co-founder of Knightscope, Inc., the Silicon Valley firm behind the K5 bots.
