This week’s Smart City roundup features robots that take care of your building environment, and a smart telepresence that puts you in the right place at the right time.

AtSite’s Max robot

At the IBCon/RealComm Conference, in Las Vegas, NV, AtSite, a company that specializes in smart building solutions, introduced Max, a robot that collects environmental data such as temperature, humidity, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), CO2, pressure, light and sound.  According to the company, Max is a cost-effective way to monitor various locations and gather data compared to installing numerous amounts of sensors throughout a building.

Max is navigated by people and works well with existing management teams, which means building managers do not have to worry about losing their jobs to robots.

Max is constantly connected to InSite, the company’s cloud platform for smart buildings which was recently expanded to offer a more robust cloud based data infrastructure that provide a centralized and integrated environment to power new tools, analytics, business intelligence and innovative services.

One use case presented by AtSite during the conference is that Max can be greatly utilized in hospitals where there is a constant need to monitor the environment to ensure patients are staying in a clean and comfortable place, all of which could facilitate in their early and fast recovery time.

Bob will serve and protect your building

G4S, a British multinational security services company, has an interesting piece of equipment roaming its halls, called Bob.  Bob is a robotic security guard that is part of a $12.2 million robot pilot project by the University of Birmingham that aims to put robots in office buildings around the world.

Bob won’t replace security guards, but instead helps them secure buildings by doing the daunting task of patrolling the building, especially at night.  Bob scans and films in 3D which helps it to plot chairs, tables and other inanimate objects in the office, and also keep track of the moving elements such as people, and determines how the environment changes as people move around.  The data gathered by Bob is compared to previous readings, which allows it to report to his people partners of any minute changes in the environment which could mean that something is amiss.

Though Bob cannot apprehend intruders, the robot is able to quickly call for backup to take care of the matter.  Also, Bob knows when it’s running out of juice so it can park itself and charge its battery.

BeamPro me up, Scotty!

Being head of a department or the CEO of a company has its perks but things can get pretty busy, and at times you need to be two places at once.  If this scenario resembles your work life, you might be interested in a smart office buddy that helps you stay on top of things even when you’re not physically available.

BeamPro is not a robot, but a smart telepresence that allows the user to be present at meetings even if they’re not physically available.  It features a 17″ 4:3 LCD screen, built-in speakers with volume control, two wide angle cameras that lets you see the path and the people you are talking to, two dual band radios for connectivity with an optional 4G card, and a spread of 6-microphones that cancel echos and reduce background noise.

It has a top speed of 2kph which is useful when the person you are interacting with needs to talk and walk at the same time.  The battery lasts 8 hours when in use and has a standby time of 24 hours.  Charging BeamPro is easy with the charging dock, just drive it up to the charging dock and an indicator tells you if the equipment is charging.

Navigating the BeamPro is easy.  You just need your laptop or computer to control it with the cursor keys or the A, S, D,W keys on the keyboard to go forward, back, and turn left or right, or spin.  You can also use your mouse to control BeamPro and adjust its settings.

BeamPro is now available for purchase and shipping starting at $16,000.

image via AtSite