What Happened?
Denver, CO-based Gamma Two Robotics has Promoted Louise Gunderson as Chief Technology Officer
About the Company
Vigilant Robots LLC was established in 2012 as the manufacturing and sales subsidiary of parent company Gamma Two Inc. The Vigilus Mobile Camera Platform is the result of three years of security industry research, five years of robot brain and hardware development, two dissertations, and a lifelong dream of making a useful, affordable, and effective robot suitable for dynamic human environments. Dr. Louise Gunderson and Dr. Jim Gunderson knew that a useful service robot had to be able to move safely and efficiently around people and their things. They created the Cybernetic Brain based on their theory of Artificial Intelligence, attached hardware and controllers to the brain, and instructed the robot to move. It did. Prototypes followed while continual improvements were made to the algorithms that gave the robot planning and learning capabilities. The team exhibited two home-assistance prototypes at the Consumer Electronics Show in January of 2010. Though just prototypes, the robots were enthusiastically received. While discussing potential applications, one in particular came up multiple times—Security. It became clear that the security industry was facing a nationwide staffing crisis and our autonomous robots could likely fill a significant portion of the void faced by hundreds of companies nightly: inadequate security staff. The following three years were spent researching the physical security industry products and services, and interviewing security professionals. Research and interviews lead to high-level requirements for the robots including: Affordable – increasing security needs and requirements coupled with decreasing budgets placed a particular pinch on providers and integrators alike. Our product had to be affordable for a variety of markets and budgets. By incorporating off-the-shelf technology whenever possible we keep costs down making our robots affordable; often the ROI is less than one year. Autonomous – “workforce multiplier” is another way to say “autonomous”. Security service providers faced dwindling qualified staff and budgets simultaneously. For any technology to be considered, it had to augment the workforce in place if any, and certainly not require more. Making an autonomous robot is primary to our mission; autonomy is what differentiates our robots from any other on the market and makes them a team member immediately at installation. Reliable – the robot had to perform consistently; alerting appropriately, moving safely in its environment and performing security tasks as designated during every patrol. Thousands of hours of testing and off-the-shelf technology combine to make a robot that is reliable. The Vigilus MCP will work 10-16 hours a day every day, providing a minimum of 3600 hours of security annually. We are committed to making a product that provides real security at an affordable price. Call us today to put a robot to work tomorrow.
About the Person
Louise Gunderson has a broad range of educational accomplishments, including a PhD in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia, a MS in Environmental Science and a BA in Biology from the University of Colorado; as well as a BA in Chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley. Her areas of expertise include the automatic extraction of information from complex data streams, geo-spatial analysis of satellite data, data mining, human preference forecasting, and predictive modeling of human behavior. She is the author of over 20 technical publications, including book chapters and archival journal articles. Along with James Gunderson, she had completed a technical book which was published by Springer-Verlag in late 2008.
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