Startup Wants Robot Dogs To Take A Bite Out Of Crime

An Atlanta-based startup wants to use robot dogs for security and already has some customers barking with joy.

Undaunted started making robot dogs to improve security in high-crime areas of Atlanta, and one of its dogs helped lead to an arrest in a murder investigation, per Newsweek. The company told the Daily Caller News Foundation that this is the next evolution of security for apartment complexes and multi-family homes.

Undaunted was conceived out a moment of desperation, Chris Ozgo, a cofounder of Undaunted, told the DCNF. David Cummings, a founder and partner in Atlanta Ventures, purchased 56 buildings spanning over 13 square blocks in the South Downtown neighborhood of Atlanta, a high-crime part of the city. Cummings soon discovered it was a “wasteland” for security and he spent over $400,000 per year for two 24-hour armed security guards that were not effective at policing the area. Even worse, the abandoned buildings were virtual homeless encampments.

This is where Undaunted robot dogs came in to stop crime in the community.

The mechanical canines are “building a safer community and stopping crime. It’s also like making it a place that people actually want to live, which historically hasn’t been the case for a lot of these places,” Ozgo remarked.

“Once we set up the robot, someone jumped a fence, as happens every night. We steered the robots towards the person, and they were off the property in under 90 seconds. And, we’re like, wow, we’ve got something here,” he told the DCNF.

Robot dogs are being developed for military applications, as the Daily Caller News Foundation reported, but Undaunted appears to have found a civilian use for them.

Undaunted is not the only company aiming to improve security with robot dogs.

Asylon Robotics in late October announced a $17 million deal with Securitas, one of the largest security companies in the world, to provide 26 autonomous robotic security systems, including a mix of aerial drones and ground robots, according to Forbes.

“It’s one of the largest, if not the largest, security robotics deals we’ve seen in the space so far, and it builds on some earlier deals we were doing with them,” Asylon CEO Damon Henry told the outlet.

Alert360, one of the largest home and business security companies in the country, on Thursday unveiled its DroneDog, a robotic drone security patrol service, according to Loss Prevention Magazine.

The Undaunted cofounder added that the company has many multi-family housing clients that help prevent crime in high-crime properties.

“Our Alert 360 DroneDog robot is a highly advanced video and security patrol option for commercial clients with significant property and perimeters. The DroneDog is especially beneficial for commercial clients with complex environments as well as large estates and expansive industrial properties,” Alert 360 CEO Richard Ginsburg said in a statement, per the outlet.

Ozgo revealed that deploying their robot dogs has led to drastically lower levels of crime.

445 Cleveland Avenue is one of Atlanta’s most “dangerous dwellings,” as the property experienced 122 crimes, including 27 aggravated assaults, two robberies and a child molestation, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. With the help of Undaunted robot dogs over the last year, crime is down 80% at the property, police calls declined roughly 90% and occupancy has risen.

He added that at another property, which had 40% occupancy, it rose to 98% occupancy thanks to the help of robot dogs.

Undaunted robot dogs not only prevent crime, they solve crime too.

An Undaunted dog helped identify and arrest two murder suspects in a Georgia shooting which killed a 13-year-old boy and a 45 year-old-man, according to Newsweek. The outlet believes this is the first time a robot dog’s help led to an arrest in a murder investigation.

“Undaunted Robotic Security aided in the investigation by providing video of one suspect,” Sgt. Elise Wells, a public information officer for the DeKalb County Police, told the outlet in a statement.

Although the robot dogs may aid security, critics believe it may create other issues.

 “Security robots put an amusing face on something more sinister: surveillance. Specifically, these are surveillance devices that enable operators on the other side of the world to harass people who are lost, are unhoused, or just stopped to tie their shoes,” Electronic Frontier Foundation communications manager Hudson Hongo told Newsweek.

Ozgo said 95% of its clients are private and they do not share clients’ data or benefit from disseminating data in a manner that has made many Americans concerned about automated license plate recognition (ALPR) camera systems such as Flock. He added that the company’s customers often already have camera systems.

Undaunted mainly operates in the metropolitan Atlanta region, but it has plans to expand to Houston, Texas and the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan regions in the beginning of 2027.

Although the robot dogs appear to be AI operated, it always intends to have humans at the helm of handling security.

“We’re totally human operated. It’s one of the things that people don’t realize because it kind of looks like AI when it’s just a robot walking around,” Ozgo told the DCNF. “Controlled remotely, but it’s a human voice, and every decision is made with a human. We plan on it always being that way.”

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