ORLANDO, Fla. — Soon, guests strolling through Orlando’s theme parks might find themselves walking alongside an unusual companion: a robotic security guard.
If the machine is from Robotic Assistance Devices, as CEO Steve Reinharz hopes, it won’t be easily mistaken for a person. Shaped more like the Mars Rover than the humanoid T-800 from “Terminator,” ROAMEO 2.0 — short for the Rugged Observation Assistance Mobile Electronic Officer — stands 6 and a half feet tall and gracefully cruises on four wheels despite its 750-pound mass.
But as these machines begin patrolling at amusement parks, they raise questions about employment, security and ethics. Though experts say robocops won’t be taking human jobs anytime soon, they acknowledge their use has to be closely monitored.
ROAMEO is fully autonomous and designed to work as a security and concierge service all in one. It includes cameras, a touch screen, speakers, a communication system and a call button.
Its artificial intelligence can sense when people are in restricted areas and even detect when they aren’t wearing face masks. Outside of security, ROAMEO can also act as a tour guide, giving directions and displaying information on ride wait times, Reinharz said.
“In the theme park environment, they’re going to look great,” he said. “We’re going to put smiles on people’s faces.”
A ROAMEO unit is making the product’s theme park debut in Arlington, Texas, at Six Flags Over Texas this week as part of a pilot project, said Jason Freeman, Six Flags’ vice president of security and safety. Another robot is headed to Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California, next week.
Reinharz plans to deploy 100 of them this year, and his sights are set on Orlando. He said RAD is in talks with Orlando theme park companies but did not disclose specifics.
“I expect to be in at least one theme park in Orlando by the end of the calendar year,” he said.
Disney spokeswoman Jacquee Wahler said Disney is not in contact with RAD. Representatives for Central Florida’s other major theme parks, including Universal, SeaWorld and Legoland, did not respond when asked about the possibility of autonomous security robots coming to their parks.
ROAMEO and the rest of RAD’s security robotics line are designed to supplement human security personnel but can also perform the same duties as regular security staff, Reinharz said.
“We don’t have some kind of mission of replacing security guards,” he said. “... (I hope) the existing security guards who then have to use technology, their jobs and their careers get uplifted by that.”
RAD’s security dealers have told Reinharz they are having trouble filling security positions, so he sees this technology as a way to close those gaps and “fill security guard jobs that can’t be filled by anybody else,” he said. ROAMEO has an expected five-year lifespan, according to the company.
The US. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest occupational outlook shows security guard jobs are projected to grow 15% from 2020 to 2030, adding 155,600 positions to the 1,067,700 tracked in 2020.
These jobs pay around $15 per hour on average, BLS data show. RAD has not disclosed how much each ROAMEO costs.
Recent public security job postings at Central Florida’s theme parks show starting wages for security jobs range in compensation, from $13.50 per hour at Legoland to $16.50 at SeaWorld.
At Six Flags, seasonal security worker wages range between $16 and $20 regionally, Freeman said.
“We are not looking to cut personnel,” he said in an interview. “We’re looking to become efficient with what technology is out there.”
Ronald Arkin, a leading roboticist and robo-ethics researcher, said it is unlikely security robots will completely replace human staff in the next few years, but they could lead to employee cuts.
“You still need efficient security people, just as you have right now, in a booth somewhere to do analysis of the data,” he said.
During its pilot program with RAD, Six Flags will deploy ROAMEO units to patrol parking lots during operational hours and let them roam the theme parks after close, Freeman said.
The company has dubbed their units “Parker” and has given them nametags.
While autonomous security robots are a relatively new invention, some question their effectiveness and impact on privacy when used in public spaces.
A June 2021 NBC News report on security robotics company Knightscope found little evidence its robots directly reduced crime when used by municipal police departments.
Robotic security is “generally mundane” and has been used since the 1980s, said Arkin, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. These machines’ increasing complexities also increase the opportunities for privacy issues.
“Unlike a human security guard, it does (generally) generate (and) store data, and the potential for abuse of any surveillance data is there,” he said.
But he said what robots gather is likely similar to data collected by security cameras, which are already widely used in public spaces. Freeman called ROAMEO a more intelligent security camera.
Arkin said issues could arise if robots analyze their collected data and automatically react based on their own conclusions.
Freeman said Six Flag’s robots are programmed to recognize when people are in a restricted area, but they will not be responding or collecting information on specific individuals.
“It’s not looking at the person themselves, it’s looking at the activity that the person’s doing and then notifying that there’s a potential issue with that. And then our security folks will respond,” he said.
With security robots starting their theme park shifts this week, Arkin said he would be interested to see how people respond. Theme parks attract global visitors of all ages, so they make a unique testing environment.
“Different cultures react differently to robots ... (and) different people react differently even within the same culture. Some might be afraid, some might be curious, some might be aggressive, some might be standoffish — all kinds of potential reactions,” he said. “It’d be interesting to do a study in that particular space.”
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