Security robot patrols for UK sites and estates

The robot itself is equipment and is not licensed. The people matter: guarding premises or property using CCTV equipment is a licensable activity under the Private Security Industry Act 2001, so monitoring staff who watch and act on the footage generally need a Public Space Surveillance (CCTV) licence. Monitoring is carried out by our security partner’s SIA-licensed operators.

Only through a properly certificated chain. Police issue a Unique Reference Number (URN) where the system is installed and maintained by an NSI or SSAIB certificated company, signalling is dual-path, and the alarm receiving centre holds its own certification against BS EN 50518. Without that chain, a monitoring centre can notify you and your keyholders but cannot summon police. We deliver monitoring through a certificated alarm receiving centre, and confirm what your specific site qualifies for before you sign anything.

A person verifies every detection before it escalates. This matters more than it sounds: under national policing policy, two false calls in a rolling twelve months brings a written warning and three withdraws police response altogether. British gardens are full of foxes, badgers, deer and cats, and a detector left to escalate on its own would burn a site’s police response within weeks. Human verification is what protects it.

The right ones do, and most do not. Consumer quadrupeds such as the Unitree Go2 carry no IP rating at all and are specified for dry conditions between 5 and 35 degrees, which rules them out for British weather regardless of price. Outdoor patrol needs an industrial platform rated IP56 or better, and we specify IP67 where the site justifies it.

If cameras only ever capture the client’s own land, a domestic property owner is covered by the household exemption. That exemption falls away the moment footage reaches beyond the boundary, and it never covers the party doing the monitoring. A data protection impact assessment is carried out before deployment, camera sightlines are checked against the boundary during the survey, and retention and access are agreed in writing.

A manned night patrol is a recurring wage cost for one person who can be in one place at a time. A robot patrol is a capital cost plus a monitoring fee, covering the same ground repeatedly through the night. Which is better value depends on the size of the site, the hours you need covered and what a single incident would cost you. We model it against your site and give you the figures rather than a generic claim.

Forge Robotics works across manufacturers. Hardware is normally purchased through the selected supplier, although supply can also be arranged through Forge where appropriate. Your proposal identifies who supplies and invoices for each element, who holds the product warranty, and what software support and maintenance are included. Where Forge provides the patrol as a managed service, you contact Forge for the support included in that agreement and we coordinate the suppliers as necessary. Where you buy the robot directly, product warranty issues go to the hardware supplier.

Each site needs its own map, its own patrol points and its own charging dock, so a robot lives at one property. What is shared is the software and the monitoring: our patrol system is designed to be configured per site rather than rebuilt, so adding a property is a survey and a commissioning visit rather than a development project. Clients with several properties run them from one monitoring arrangement.

It captures visible and thermal imagery, bundles that as evidence, sends it for human verification and holds position. It does not pursue, confront or challenge, and it does not contact police on its own. What happens next follows the escalation order agreed with you, including any quiet hours you set.

A mobile machine that patrols a site on its own, carrying cameras and sensors such as thermal imaging, and sends what it detects to a person to check. It covers the repetitive rounds, particularly at night, while a person still decides what happens next.

No. It supports guards rather than replacing them. It can take on repetitive patrol rounds and cover ground between cameras, but it does not challenge, detain or make judgement calls, and every detection goes to a person to verify. Guards still provide deterrence, judgement, help for visitors and an in-person response.