Cobalt – Guardian Robot

The post was originally published in Russian on Startup of the Day. Alexander kindly agreed to republish what we think is of great value to our readers.

There are a million guards employed in the USA – people who professionally do nothing. Moreover, an overwhelming majority of them are instructed against physically touching supposed criminals, should they finally turn up, – both the person and the company might end up in court.

To an onlooker, it is apparent that this is an ideal object to be automated. Robots are also good at doing nothing. And – welcome Cobalt, the American startup of the day. Its cute robots look like bowling pins. They roll around the office ‘seeking out anomalies’: broken windows or visitors without passes. The AI takes care of simple situations on its own, more complicated ones get reported to the central, and there they might even call the police.

It’s funny how Cobalt parodies living guards in their auxiliary functions as well. Do you remember how during the pandemic they used thermometer guns on everybody who came through the entrance? Robots also have such a sensor, and at least one company used it to detect infection carriers.

An old article stated that the subscription for one robot costs six thousand dollars a month. This is twice more than the average salary of a living guard. But the prime cost of the device will inevitably fall, and so will its price, most likely. At some point, the hardware will become more cost-effective.

In six years of its life, the startup brought in over USD 50M of investment.

https://www.cobaltrobotics.com/

#ai #roundb #usa #hardware #robot

Translation: Kostiantyn Tupikov