Explore our R&D with the world’s most dynamic humanoid robotRead More
Discover the past innovations that informed our current productsRead More
Meet the team behind the innovationsRead More
Learn how we develop and deploy robots to tackle industry’s toughest challengesRead More
Start your journey at Boston DynamicsRead More
Stay up to date with what we’ve been working onRead More
Discover the principles that guide our work and policiesRead More
Inspection
Blogs •
This article was written by Brent McLaughlin, co-founder and COO at Asylon Robotics. Asylon is an American manufacturer and service provider for security drones and robotics.
Security professionals have an incredibly important job protecting people and property. But as the world evolves, so do the challenges they face and are expected to overcome. In the supply chain sector, the number of cargo-related thefts has been on the rise, as factors like strapped supply chains, high costs, employee dissatisfaction, and technology have made theft more tempting and easier to carry out.
Meanwhile, many companies are having difficulty navigating current labor shortages. Across industries, operators are looking for new strategies and technologies to plug gaps, manage risk, and protect their people, assets, and IP. It is no surprise that the physical security industry, as a result, has very high demands for the robustness and effectiveness of the security controls and mitigations that they deploy. Security teams need to know that their systems are going to work and work well.
Many have found robotic perimeter security to be an effective risk mitigation and security layer for their needs. Solutions like Asylon’s robotic perimeter security offer several interconnected systems—including robots and drones, advanced camera and sensing payloads, infrastructure for charging and storage, software to automate and analyze security rounds, third-party alarm integrations, and human-in-the-loop controls to monitor patrols and respond to active incidents.
While this solution is operating 24/7/365 right now and has already been used for over 150,000 missions, security professionals are adopting tried and true approaches to evaluating and understanding the capabilities and limitations of the systems as they do any other security solution. They seek to understand the use cases and environments for which the system was designed for, evaluate the system’s potential to solve their specific pain points, identify potential risks, and then analyze the robustness of the system for their operational environment. And of course, they want to understand the ROI and the impact a robotic perimeter security system could have to create a safer, more secure environment for their organization.
As an example, Bayer Crop Science partnered with Asylon to help secure their critical locations in Hawaii and deployed their first security robot with us in January, 2024. The site required cost-effective, reliable, and consistent after-hours coverage, where staffing and labor issues proved challenging.
In Hawaii, Bayer is responsible for approximately 8,000 acres of property, 700 employees, and 90 percent of the global supply of corn seed. The stakes are high to effectively ensure safety and reduce risk, so robot reliability is essential.
Since deploying Spot at the Bayer facility in January, Asylon has conducted more than 2,500 exterior patrols and the robot has walked well over 1,500 miles. After experiencing the success from the first installation, Bayer has already deployed additional robots to other facilities in Hawaii.
The combination of robotics, software, and human intelligence drives the real value for Bayer. In real-time, trained operators in Asylon’s 24/7 Robotic Security Operations Center (RSOC) are reporting safety and security events to either the on-site security team or the Bayer Hawaii Security Operations Center (HSOC). These reported security events range from nearby forest fires to wild boar damaging the property after hours.
Matthew Paschoal, PacWest Security Lead for Bayer, said, “Our partnership with Asylon has allowed us to leverage cutting-edge technology to protect our assets, improve efficiency, and ensure the safety of our employees. The seamless integration and real-time monitoring have proven invaluable, leading to an increased security presence and cost savings of $90,000 per robot annually. As a result, we’re continuing to scale the program and partnership with Asylon further.”
In today’s environment, measuring business impact is a necessity. Technology must be tied to specific outcomes and objectives to be adopted at a meaningful scale. Through extensive research, customer feedback, and data analysis of the Asylon fleet, several key trends have become clear. Let’s dive into where robotics can have the biggest impact and explore the metrics to help quantify that impact.
Improved Site Efficiencies: Through a hybrid model that combines human expertise and advanced robotics, site cost and operational efficiencies can be significantly improved.
Patrol Frequency: Asylon’s robotic solutions often enable higher patrol frequencies without increasing costs. Hourly human-in-the-loop patrols provide a consistent presence to enable comprehensive coverage and quick identification of potential security threats.
Patrol Quality: Advanced payloads enable human analysts with a new set of tools to perform traditional tasks. And by recording metadata and video for every single patrol, patrol quality is assured through regular checks.
Patrol Reliability: While robots will need scheduled maintenance or experience an infrequent mechanical issue, they do not call in sick, go on vacation, or get distracted on the job. From a reliability perspective, Asylon customers are experiencing an upgrade.
Proactive Theft Prevention: The deployment of Asylon’s robotic solutions has been shown to significantly reduce theft/vandalism. Asylon clients have reported theft/vandalism issues dropping from multiple incidents per month down to zero.
Integrated Response: The integration of robotics and alarms or intrusion detection systems can lead to faster response times to escalating security incidents.
Safer Patrolling: By leveraging a robot for exterior patrolling, typically at night or during off-hours, security officers do not have to enter unsafe or unknown situations.
Fewer Workplace Injuries: By assigning potentially dangerous tasks to robots, security officers can focus on less physically strenuous but more cognitively focused jobs.
Enhanced Work Environment: By leveraging robots for dull, dark, and dangerous security tasks, Asylon’s solutions can improve job satisfaction for security personnel. This can lead to better retention rates as employees focus on higher-value tasks, knowing that robotic systems are handling repetitive patrols and monitoring.
Professional Development: By working alongside advanced technologies like robotics, security officers can learn new skills and progress careers further.
Of course, deploying and operating robots at scale to complete core business functions is very new for most organizations. It can be a major challenge for organizations to build out all the critical aspects like project management, staffing, live monitoring, and maintenance that are key to enabling a robust program. As a result, Asylon has developed a full-service solution that helps customers realize the benefits provided by robotics significantly faster and easier. After deploying a new system, a site is operating at full tempo in under 30 days. That means that in just a few weeks a new site can have a robot working around the clock and completing as many as 168 human-in-the-loop patrols per week.
One of the key enablers to operating robots at scale is our 24/7/365 Robotic Security Operations Center (RSOC). Originally started in 2020 to manage FAA regulatory requirements for remote drone operations, the RSOC has grown significantly to include the operation and monitoring of our large fleet of Spots. Today, the RSOC is staffed by dozens of trained analysts, who bring both security expertise and experience as both robot and licensed drone operators.
Additionally at Asylon, we’ve invested heavily in robust systems and responsive service. The majority of our deployed robots patrol between 50 and 100 miles every week and we run hundreds of patrols and alarm response missions per day from the RSOC. Since even the most robust technologies will eventually run into issues when faced with heavy use in challenging conditions, having contingency plans for when robots fail is paramount to ensuring client satisfaction. Especially in the security sector where maximizing uptime is incredibly important. For our clients, when a robot has a problem that requires more than a field fix, we can quickly swap in a different robot to reduce downtime and ensure consistency of operations, leveraging our large, centralized fleet.
When evaluating different solutions, the proof is in the data. As of October 2024, Asylon’s RSOC has conducted more than 125,000 missions with Spot, covering more than 95,000 miles, and identifying more than 1,500 security and safety events for clients. Additionally, the human-on-the-loop strategy has led to the remote inspection of over 3,000,000 points of interest by trained human analysts in the RSOC. The deployment of Spot has transformed security operations for our clients across the country, increasing security while simultaneously reducing operating costs.
Physical security professionals are looking for solutions to keep up and stay ahead. Spot, when backed by Asylon’s infrastructure, technology stack, and team of security professionals, has proven to be an effective tool to augmenting physical security teams and increasing confidence in physical security programs. With the 100,000-mission milestone in the rear-view mirror, Asylon and Boston Dynamics are looking forward to future milestones, leveraging the tremendous amount of operational data generated every day to continue to improve the system and expand its capabilities.
To learn more about the role of robotics in perimeter security, watch the on-demand recording of our webinar with Bayer.
Recent Blogs
•55 min watch
Leveraging Robotics for Smarter Perimeter Security Inspections
•7 min read
Making Every Step Count with Spot
Intro to Robotic Perimeter Security
