Robots roam Pechanga Resort Casino to enhance security
Robots roam Pechanga Resort Casino to enhance security
By Hugo Martin JUL 06, 2018 | 12:25 PM
Robots roam Pechanga Resort Casino to enhance security
The K5 security robot patrols the hotel lobby and casino
floor. It is one of two robots used at the Pechanga Resort Casino to enhance
security. (Pechanga Resort Casino)
A growing number of hotels have begun employing robots to
deliver towels, toothpaste and other items to guests — an addition viewed
primarily as a novelty to appeal to tech-loving travelers.
But less than a year after the mass shooting near a Las
Vegas hotel, a Southern California casino resort has added camera-wielding
robots to enhance security.
The Pechanga Resort Casino in Temecula last month began employing
two robots — one that stands motionless in the valet parking area and a mobile
rocket-shaped automatron that patrols the lobby area — in addition to the
300-person security staff and thousands of mounted surveillance cameras.
Hotels across the country have enhanced security since
the Oct. 1 massacre, according to the American Hotel and Lodging Assn., the
trade group for the nation’s hotel industry. The mass shooting, carried out
from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, killed 58 people
and wounded 851 others attending a nearby outdoor concert.
The Mandalay Bay hotel, where gunman Stephen Paddock was
a guest, put 24-hour security guards at the elevator banks shortly after the
shooting.
Pechanga’s vice president of public safety, Robert
Krauss, said he was working on adding robot security guards several months
before the Las Vegas shooting and now hopes that cybercrime-busters can help
deter future tragedies.
“I’m always looking for new technologies,” he said. “I’m
always looking for new ways of preventing crimes.”
The robots, built by Mountain View, Calif.-based
Knightscope and already used in malls and sporting arenas, can send live images
of what they see to a security command post, where security experts can either
direct the mobile robot to move closer to a suspicious person or object or
simply zoom in with their high-definition cameras.
Krauss said he already is planning to add another robot
with infrared technology near the pool area to look out for guests jumping into
the water after the pool is closed.
“I think this is a huge deterrent,” he said.
But the move to deploy robots for security purposes
hasn’t been completely smooth.
Last year, a Knightscope robot at a Georgetown restaurant
and office complex rolled into a fountain and nearly drowned. Last April, a
drunk man allegedly knocked one of the Knightscope robots over in Mountain
View, Calif.
Knightscope Executive Vice President Stacy Stephens said
the robot fell into the fountain because of loose paving stones at the complex
and that a new algorithm for the robot will prevent that from happening again.
He added that a resort in Arizona has also started using
his robots to enhance security and he expects more hotels and resorts to do the
same in the future.
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