A Special Message for Commercial Security Specialists and Enterprises

We all live in a different, more chaotic and less safe world than we enjoyed prior to the holocaust of 9/11.   As a Vietnam Veteran the hazards, difficulties, and dangers of hours and hours of guard duty are well known to me.   Because of this experience in an overseas combat zone, we are very interested in partnering with firms and/or individuals interested in assisting us in commercial security applications and development.

While most of our website is presently focused on family care, we believe our suite of "basebot" technologies is very applicable to the clear and present dangers and needs in commercial security.   We believe this because of all the environments for a Mobile Service Robot (MSR) to automatically self navigate, the home with its clutter and constant movement within is a far more difficult environment in which an MSR can patrol, run errands, and/or automatically follow a designated person.   The pathways in a home are generally narrower than found in commercial areas.   Children's toys and pets are not frequently strewn about in commercial environments, etc. so the small, frail dynamic clutter is much less.

Due to our long battery life, and payload capacity, where a guard would quickly tire of carrying a WMD or other weapons detector weighing twenty, thirty or more pounds for hours upon hours back and forth in a train station, bus terminal, shopping center, or airport terminal ( to name just a few public transportation venues), one of our SecurityBots™ would patrol tirelessly while ever alert and wary.   We would expect each squad of six to seven SecurityBots to have a human "sargeant" overseer to place human morality and judgment firmly in the "driver's seat."

Airport Security & Surveillance:

September 15, 2001

Airport security has taken on a new level of importance due to the recent terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. Identification of potential airline hijackers before they can board airline flights is seen as critically important in preventing future use of airliners as weapons of war.   Nationally, hundreds of security guards and their support personnel will need to be hired, trained, and equipped to address the new realities of airport security.

A busy, international airport such as Atlanta's Hartsfield International will need a minimum of 25 to 30 guards to have only one security guard per concourse per eight hour shift.   (This number should probably be doubled.)   Hiring at least one supervisor per shift raises this number to 30 to 35.   Assuming that the total compensation package (including all employer paid benefits and taxes) per guard costs the airport only $50,000 per year, one quickly realizes that most major airports are going to see their security budget increase a minimum of $1,500,000 annually.   This budget increase would not include training and equipment expenses that can easily add another $5,000 to $10,000 per year per guard for an annual additional expense of $150,000 to $300,000.

Even in this scenario, minimal security guard protection will cost the airport nearly $2,000,000 more annually.   Smaller airports will be impacted disproportionately higher due to their need for security guards, but with fewer paying passengers (and hence flights) against which the airport authority may tax to offset their additional security costs.