Security robot dogs in the UK: which quadruped is fit for patrol and inspection?

Every quadruped in this article walks, climbs stairs and carries a camera. What separates them is what happens when it rains, when the battery has to last a full patrol, and when the robot has to run a route on its own at three in the morning. The manufacturers themselves draw the line: Unitree files the Go2 under “Consumer/Education” and its B2 under “Industry”; DEEP Robotics describes the X30 as an industrial platform for inspection, investigation, security, surveying and mapping. The classes are not interchangeable, and a lot of confusion in the UK market comes from treating them as if they were.

If you are still deciding whether legs are the right answer at all, start with our overview of quadruped robots for UK businesses. The rest of this article assumes legs make sense for your ground and asks the harder question: which class, and what has to be true before it earns a place on your site. The clip below is the operating pattern in question: a scheduled route, a camera payload and alerts going back to a person.

Ground a fixed camera and a wheeled security robot cannot cover

Fixed cameras see what they were pointed at on the day they were installed. Wheeled patrol robots are excellent on car parks, warehouse aisles and paved perimeters, and poor at kerbs, steps, loose surfaces and the tight service routes behind plant. A quadruped covers the ground in between: the external staircase, the substation compound on gravel, the flood-prone yard, the route through a building that was never designed for a machine on wheels.

That is the whole case. A quadruped is not a better camera; it is a camera that can be put where cameras and wheels cannot go, on a schedule, with a person deciding what to do about what it finds.

What a quadruped adds to a security operation, and what it does not

It adds predictable coverage of awkward ground, repeatable evidence (the same viewpoint every pass, so change stands out), thermal and low-light sensing where the payload supports it, and the ability to send a machine to investigate before a person goes. It does not remove the person. No platform in this article makes an arrest, opens a gate it was not given, or decides on its own that a detection is an intruder rather than a fox. The operating model that works is a robot that patrols and reports, and a control room that verifies and responds; our robot security patrols for UK sites and estates page sets out how that runs day to day.

The Go2 is the quadruped most UK buyers have seen: it is inexpensive, stocked by several UK resellers and genuinely capable for its class. Unitree lists it under “Robot - Consumer/Education”, and its user manual opens by describing it as “a globally high-performance, consumer-grade interactive quadruped robot”. None of that is a criticism. It is a statement of what the platform is for.

Air, Pro, X and EDU: which variant does what

Unitree’s product page lists four Go2 variants. The Air and Pro have no secondary-development access; the X has basic support and the EDU has full support, including the Ethernet, SBUS and 28.8 V outputs that developer documentation reserves for the EDU. Charging-pile compatibility is listed for the X and EDU only. The EDU is the only variant with a foot-force sensor and a depth-camera option, and the only one that ships the 15,000 mAh long-endurance battery as standard. For any engineering or evaluation work the EDU is the variant that matters; the Air and Pro are consumer products.

Where the Go2 fits: demonstrations, education, research, software development and controlled evaluation

A Go2 EDU is an excellent way to find out what legged mobility means for your task before anyone spends industrial money. Unitree publishes a C++ SDK, a Python SDK and a ROS 2 package that covers the Go2, so route logic, perception and integration with your own systems can be developed and tested on a platform that costs a fraction of the industrial class and then carried across. Its 3D LiDAR mapping lets an operator build a point-cloud map from the app and set a path for the robot to follow. That is exactly the kind of controlled evaluation we design for education and research teams and for businesses that want to learn before they commit, and it is where much of the ROS 2 and SDK experience in Forge’s robotics engineering team comes from.

The limits, in Unitree’s own words

Unitree’s manual says to run the robot “in 5°C-35°C with good weather condition” and not “in inclement weather, such as fog, snow, rain, lightning, sandstorms, windstorms”; it states that “the robot is not waterproof” and “not dustproof”, and that it should not be run on gravel. No ingress-protection rating is published for any Go2 variant. Battery life is about one to two hours for the Air, Pro and X. There is no scheduled-mission or patrol feature described on the product page; autonomous movement is the app-defined path just mentioned. A British winter night on an outdoor estate is outside every one of those lines, which is why the Go2 belongs in the demonstration class for security work, however good it is at everything else. You can watch Unitree’s own introduction of the Go2 on its channel; note the 2023 launch price quoted there excludes tax and shipping.

DEEP Robotics calls the X30 “a flagship product designed to meet core industry needs in multiple fields including inspection, investigation, security, surveying and mapping”, and its English one-pager lists “Security & Patrol” among the application scenarios. It is one of the few quadrupeds whose maker names security patrol as a purpose and, of the five platforms compared here, the only one for which we found the manufacturer’s own footage of an outdoor security deployment.

IP67, minus 20 to 55 °C, 45-degree stairs: the manufacturer’s stated specification

The product page states IP67 ingress protection and an operating range of −20 °C to 55 °C, a maximum speed of at least 4 m/s, slopes of up to 45°, steps of at least 20 cm and stair climbing at a 45° angle, with an endurance of 2.5 to 4 hours and at least 10 km per charge. The one-pager adds a payload capacity of at least 20 kg and “smart self-charging”. DEEP Robotics also states that the X30 can navigate “in extreme environments such as darkness, strong light, flickering, and even without any light source”. The page carries its own caveat: “All parameters are laboratory data, operating in real environment may have differences”, which is the right caveat for every figure in this article.

X30 and X30 Pro

The Pro adds the sensor-fusion mapping, localisation and path-planning algorithms, an industrial 12 V and 24 V power interface for payloads, Wi-Fi and USB, and a lighting system; the base X30 offers Ethernet and a 72 V output. DEEP Robotics does not itemise the sensor suite or publish the battery capacity in watt-hours, and its public GitHub repositories provide a C++ navigation-task SDK and ROS 2 message definitions rather than a full X30 ROS 2 driver, so integration scope has to be confirmed with the manufacturer rather than assumed.

Getting an X30 into the UK

DEEP Robotics’ website does not list a UK distributor, and the after-sales terms published on its support page apply to mainland China. That does not rule the platform out; it means the import, support and spares route has to be settled before a pilot rather than discovered during one. This is the kind of platform assessment we do before recommending anything, alongside subscription and hire options where a site wants an outcome rather than an asset.

The B2 is Unitree’s industrial line, listed under “Robot - Industry” and described by the company as an “industrial-grade quadruped robot”. On paper it carries more and runs longer than any other platform here: about 60 kg with battery, a continuous walking load of more than 40 kg and a standing load of at least 120 kg, a 2,250 Wh battery giving four to six hours, and more than 5 hours and 20 km unloaded. It is rated IP67 with an operating range of −20 °C to 55 °C, climbs stairs of 20 to 25 cm continuously and slopes of more than 45°.

B2 and B2-W

The sensor line reads “3D LiDAR ×1 + depth camera ×2 + optical camera ×2 (varies with different configurations)”, and the page notes that “part of the function requires human operation or secondary development to realize”. In practice that means the B2 is a strong carrier for a security or inspection payload and a capable base for the same SDK and ROS 2 tooling as the Go2, but the patrol behaviour, docking and reporting are integration work; Unitree’s own patrol software is described on a Chinese grid-inspection solutions page and we have not seen it offered for the UK. The B2-W is the wheel-legged variant: about 85 kg, IP67, with a stated top speed of 15 km/h (in special configurations and speed-limited in practice, per Unitree’s footnote) and around 30 km unloaded, better suited to long paved perimeters than to stairs.

Where the B2 and the IP56 A2 sit against the X30

Unitree’s newer A2 sits between the two: about 42 kg, IP56 (the A2-PRO is IP56 to IP67 with core components rated IP67), hot-swappable dual batteries and around 20 km unloaded, positioned for logistics, industrial inspection and emergency rescue rather than security. Against the X30, the B2 offers more payload and endurance on paper; the X30 offers a maker who names security patrol as a purpose, a published self-charging feature and stated operation without light. Which matters more depends on the site, which is why we test rather than pick from a table.

Spot: IP54, a mature ecosystem and UK deployments with primary sources

Boston Dynamics positions Spot as “our agile mobile robot for dynamic sensing and industrial inspection” and sells a dedicated “Perimeter Security Inspection” solution. Its specification sheet gives about 33 kg with battery, a 14 kg payload, 1.6 m/s, slopes of ±30°, 300 mm steps, IP54, and an average runtime of 90 minutes with a dock that recharges the robot autonomously. IP54 is the number to notice: it is splash-resistant rather than submersible, and Spot must be powered on at 0 °C or above, so a wet, freezing UK site needs the same honest conversation as any other platform. What Spot has that the others do not is depth: a Python SDK on its fifth major version, the Orbit fleet software, a thermal and 25× zoom camera payload in Spot Cam 2, and published safety design references (ISO 12100, IEC 60204-1, ISO 13850). Spot is also the quadruped with a UK deployment documented by its operator: Sellafield Ltd has described using Spot, adapted by Createc, for work in radiological areas.

ANYmal: built around plant inspection, with the Ex-rated ANYmal X

ANYbotics sells ANYmal as an “autonomous robotic inspection solution”: IP67, a 10 kg payload, 90 minutes and about 2 km per charge at a normal walking speed of 0.75 m/s, with a pan-tilt payload carrying a 20× zoom camera, a thermal camera rated for −40 to 550 °C, a spotlight and an ultrasonic microphone, automatic docking with multiple docking stations to extend range, and built-in Wi-Fi and 4G that lets it run with or without connectivity. ANYmal X is the variant certified ATEX and IECEx for Zone 1 IIB, which puts it in a category of its own for refineries and chemical plants. ANYbotics does not name security patrol as a use, its weight and dimensions are not on its open web pages, and its published API is for data rather than robot control, so treat it as the inspection specialist of this group.

Wheel-legged and defence-oriented platforms

Two other families come up in UK conversations. Wheel-legged robots such as DEEP Robotics’ Lynx M20 (about 35 kg, IP66, stairs to 25 cm, positioned by the maker in a security-patrol film for industrial parks and campuses) trade some rough-ground ability for speed on paved routes. Ghost Robotics’ Vision 60 is positioned for “defense, homeland, and enterprise applications”, rated IP67 and −40 to 55 °C; its UK availability is not something we can confirm from public sources, and the YouTube footage published in its name is defence-oriented, so it sits outside the scope of a commercial security pilot here.

Every cell below is the manufacturer’s own published figure, read on 3 September 2026. “Not published” means exactly that: no official page states it, and we have not filled the gap from resellers. Laboratory figures are what the makers call them.

The robot is the visible part. A patrol that a security manager can rely on needs seven other things, and a pilot that skips any of them will produce a very good video and no decision.

A patrol robot with cameras is a surveillance system, and in the UK it sits under the same regime as CCTV: the Information Commissioner’s Office publishes guidance on video surveillance, the ICO says a data protection impact assessment is a legal requirement in most video-surveillance cases (and Article 35 of the UK GDPR names large-scale systematic monitoring of a publicly accessible area explicitly), and where contracted rather than in-house staff use the robot’s cameras to identify people or monitor their activities in order to guard premises or people, those staff need an SIA public space surveillance (CCTV) licence. None of this is exotic. It is the CCTV rulebook applied to a camera that moves, and it should be in the pilot plan on day one. How the operating side runs, from survey to monitoring to response, is on our robot security patrols for UK sites and estates page.

The generic checks for any quadruped pilot, terrain, weather, battery against the real route, connectivity and safety, are in our guide to quadruped robot inspection in the UK. A security pilot adds five tests of its own.

Detection quality, false-alarm rate and what a false alarm costs

Count every detection over a fortnight and classify it: intruder, staff, animal, weather, nothing. Then put a cost on a false alarm, in operator time and, where the police are called out, in the standing of your alarm response with them. A platform that flags every fox as well as every intruder is not a patrol; it is a source of noise.

Operator workload and shift pattern

Measure how much attention the robot actually needs per patrol, who provides it at 3 a.m., and what happens when that person is dealing with something else. The best platforms reduce the questions to “verify or dismiss”; the worst turn the control room into a robot-minding job.

Control-room, VMS and reporting integration

Detections and footage should land where your team already looks, in the video management system or the incident log, with the route, time and evidence attached. If the pilot ends with a separate app that only the robot vendor’s engineer can read, the integration was never done.

Endurance and docking in your weather, not the brochure’s

Run the full route in the wettest, coldest week available. Record the endurance you get against the figure on the page, whether the robot docked itself every time, and what the platform did when a gate was closed or the ground was flooded. The clip below is a useful checklist because ANYbotics’ description of it lists exactly the behaviours worth testing: stairs, fall recovery, an autonomous mission, obstacle avoidance, self-docking and reading a gauge.

Success criteria and exit conditions

Agree before the robot arrives what a successful pilot looks like (coverage, detections verified, false-alarm rate, uptime, cost per patrol against the current arrangement) and what would stop it. A pilot with an exit condition is a decision tool. A pilot without one is a rental. We lead pilots on that basis through a structured pilot programme, and where engineering delivery needs scale we work through our engineering delivery partnership.