Site security buyer guide
Security robots patrol a site on their own, stream live and thermal video to a monitoring team, and log every round. Compare the deployed platforms on environment, autonomy, sensors, integration and cost before you shortlist one.
The platform-class decision
01
Parking lots, campuses and walkways with paved, mostly level surfaces suit a wheeled autonomous security robot such as the Knightscope K5 or SMP Argus. Long dwell time and continuous presence matter more than agility here.
02
Stairs, curbs, gravel and cluttered industrial yards are quadruped territory. Spot-based platforms carry thermal pan-tilt-zoom payloads over terrain a wheeled robot cannot hold at all.
03
A robot without a monitoring plan is a camera on wheels. Choose between your own SOC watching vendor software and a managed service such as Asylon's RSOC, where analysts intervene and escalate for you.
Normalized platform evidence
This is not a market ranking. It shows what the reviewed sources establish for each platform and leaves missing evidence visible.
Evidence reviewed 30 July 2026
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| Buyer field | Knightscope K5Outdoor wheeled ASR | SMP Argus S5.2Outdoor wheeled ASR | Boston Dynamics SpotQuadruped + Orbit | Asylon DroneDogManaged quadruped service |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Environment | Structured outdoor environments: parking lots, campuses and walkways at pedestrian speeds.[KS1] | Outdoor patrol rated IP65, operating from -25°C to 45°C; climbs obstacles up to 7 inches.[SMP2] | IP54, -20°C to 55°C, with 360° terrain sensing; handles stairs and rough ground.[BD1] | Built on the Spot platform for outdoor perimeters, housed in a DogHouse shelter with environmental controls and charging.[AS1] |
| Autonomy and patrol behaviour | Patrols custom routes fully autonomously, reroutes around obstacles and returns to its charge station on its own.[KS2] | Navigates by computer vision plus satellite positioning; fleet software coordinates up to 50 robots sharing routes on one site.[SMP1][SMP2] | Orbit software schedules missions, edits routes, manages multi-site fleets and allows remote teleoperation.[BD2] | DroneIQ software runs autonomous patrols; Asylon's 24/7 RSOC analysts intervene, escalate and direct response.[AS1] |
| Sensors | 360° high-definition video with thermal imaging, license plate reading on all four cameras, and two-way audio.[KS1][KS3] | Six panoramic cameras for 360° coverage, PTZ tracking to 50 m, and a thermal variant that detects people within 200 m in darkness.[SMP1][SMP3] | Spot CAM+IR payload adds a radiometric thermal camera, 30x optical zoom PTZ, 360°x170° spherical view and two-way audio.[BD5] | High-resolution EO and thermal cameras with real-time streaming over AES-256 encrypted, redundant uplinks.[AS1] |
| Runtime and charging | Patrols 1 to 1.5 hours per charge, recharges in about 30 minutes and stays operational (minus mobility) while docked.[KS2] | Up to 18 hours of autonomous patrolling with a fully automated docking and recharging cycle.[SMP2] | Average 90-minute runtime on a 564 Wh battery, 60-minute recharge, with autonomous self-charging.[BD1] | Battery swaps take under 5 minutes of downtime at GXO, versus roughly 40 minutes on inductive charging.[AS4] |
| Monitoring and integration | Browser-based KSOC console with live and recorded video, programmable routes, and alerts by email, text or phone.[KS3][KS4] | ONVIF compliant and integrates with existing VMS platforms such as Milestone; onboard DVR holds about a week of footage.[SMP2] | Orbit is SOC 2 Type II audited and deploys via cloud, AWS or an on-premise Site Hub.[BD2] | Delivered as a managed service: robots, analytics and human oversight from Asylon's Robotic Security Operations Center.[AS1] |
| Commercial model | Annual all-inclusive Machine-as-a-Service subscription covering the robot, maintenance, KSOC access, charging and upgrades.[KS4] | Sold by direct purchase or hardware-plus-software subscription through a distributor network.[SMP1] | Enterprise hardware sale plus Orbit software; no public pricing is published on the product pages.[BD1][BD2] | Subscription security service; Asylon cites customer-reported savings of up to $90,000 per robot annually.[AS5] |
| Deployment evidence | 434 clients across 42 US states, including retail, healthcare, education and government sites.[KS6] | In service since 2010 and used in more than 15 countries; unit counts are not published.[SMP1] | Over 1,500 robots in customer hands; more than 70,000 miles patrolled and 100,000 security missions at customer sites.[BD1][BD3] | 150,000+ patrol miles and 250,000 combined automated missions; the only automated system approved at a major US airport (MEM) under the FAA BEYOND program.[AS2][AS3] |
Verified security programs
Status checked 30 July 2026
Status is assigned from the named customer or operator wherever one exists; where only a vendor source is available, the source list says so. A demo never counts as a deployment.
| Program | Maturity | Workflow | What the source establishes |
|---|---|---|---|
| GXO Logistics + Asylon DroneDog | Deployed | Warehouse campus perimeter patrol | DroneDog patrolled 288 miles in its first 30 days; the combined program cleared 819+ alarms by drone and GXO reports a 13% reduction in the local crime index at one site in year one.[AS4] |
| FIFA World Cup 2026 + Boston Dynamics Spot | Deployed | Event perimeter and asset protection | FIFA Security personnel operate Spot robots for perimeter patrols at the International Broadcast Center in Dallas and the New York / New Jersey stadium.[BD4] |
| Citizens Financial Group + Asylon | Deployed | Corporate campus robotic security | Citizens' VP of Physical Security is on record after more than three years running Asylon's robotic security program.[AS2] |
| Home Depot Backyard (Mercedes-Benz Stadium) + Asylon DroneDog | Deployed | Venue grounds patrol | The venue is quoted on Boston Dynamics' security page saying theft and vandalism dropped to zero since DroneDog patrols began; Moderna and GXO are named alongside as security customers.[BD3] |
| NYPD / MTA Times Square subway + Knightscope K5 | Pilot / testing | Overnight transit station patrol | A two-month pilot from September 2023 ran the K5 from midnight to 6 a.m., leased at $9 an hour, with no facial recognition and no audio recording.[NYC1] |
The guarding cost baseline
A robot does not replace a guard force. It changes how many posts need a person standing on them. Price the comparison per covered hour, not per unit.
Human baseline
$20.42 mean hourly wage
BLS May 2025 data puts the mean hourly wage for US security guards at $20.42, or $42,470 a year. A single 24/7 post needs four to five paid rotations before supervision, benefits and churn are counted.[BLS1]
Robot pricing evidence
Roughly $7 to $12 per covered hour
Knightscope has priced its all-inclusive subscription between $6 and $12 per hour in 2019 and quoted as low as $0.75 to $9.00 per hour in 2024. New York City leased a K5 at $9 an hour for its 2023 subway pilot.[KS7][KS5][NYC1]
The staffing gap
162,300 guard openings a year
BLS projects essentially flat guard employment through 2034 yet about 162,300 openings every year, almost all replacement churn. Robots absorb the repetitive rounds that are hardest to keep staffed.[BLS2]
Procurement hard gates
Score vendors only after the site clears the constraints that decide whether any robot can hold the patrol.
Walk the exact patrol route. Stairs, curbs, gravel, ramps and door thresholds decide wheeled versus quadruped before any feature comparison matters.
Match the robot's IP rating and temperature range to the site's worst night, not its average day. A patrol that pauses in rain is a schedule, not security.
Live video needs LTE, 5G or Wi-Fi on every metre of the route. Dead zones turn alerts into after-the-fact reports; survey coverage before contracting.
A robot detects, records and announces; it does not detain. Name who receives each alert, the escalation path and the target response time before the pilot starts.
Surveillance, audio-recording and biometric rules differ by state and country. The NYPD pilot ran with no facial recognition and no audio recording; know your local equivalent.
Decide whether feeds land in your existing VMS and SOC, the vendor's console, or a managed RSOC. Retrofitting monitoring after purchase is the most common failed deployment.
Site requirements
Bring these answers to every vendor conversation. A quote without them is a guess.
Buyer questions
Shortlist support
We map your patrol routes, monitoring setup and budget against the platforms above and return a shortlist that survives procurement.
Every claim above cites one of these sources. Review dates note when RoboZaps last checked the page.