Are there any known cases of vacuum or lawnmower robots being banned in sensitive locations?

Factual Questions
1

If I wanted to spy on a sensitive location (say, a military base or an industrial R&D office developing cutting edge technology) one method might be to supply vacuum robots or lawnmower robots enhanced to look and listen around, and phone home.

Adding a small incendiary or explosive charge might even allow me to do a spot of sabotage, e.g. set fire to an office at a future time of my choice.

Are there any known case of installations where lawnower or vaccum robots are banned for this reason?

2

I don’t know, but the importation of them and their spare parts from locations considered questionable have been looked into.

3

I can say for a fact that I was prohibited from specifying video flame and smoke detectors as part of a fire alarm system in at least one research area at a client location. It was a lab and video detection technology would have been a good fit. But their policy was NO video cameras or imaging devices of any type in the restricted areas. (The reasons for this were not what one might think.) This was a private commercial client. I can’t imagine that they would have made an exception for robot vacuums…and I can’t imagine that they needed a mower in the labs.

4

What I would think would be ITAR regulations. What was it actually?

And I’m not sure that robotic devices are anything special, here: You could hide a bug in an ordinary 1950s housewife’s vacuum, too.

5

No, not ITAR. And not due to intellectual property concerns. It was more of a PR issue with activities in the lab(s). (It wasn’t until I started working with some of these larger companies that I realized how sensitive they could be about anything at all that could affect stock prices.)

6

I don’t think the question is that these particular robots are excluded but whether they’re under suspicion or considered for security implications at all. Suppose the cleaning company, fully cleared for the work, brings a fleet of them in at night. Or the floor waxer they only use monthly has cams. Is the hands-free towel dispenser a camera? The room occupancy sensors for the lights?

7

I meant the comment about robot vacuums to be humorous, as they would obviously never allow a robot vac in a lab like that.

Many devices that “map” an area are actually using LIDAR, or some other technology that doesn’t really produce an image like a camera. They scan a plane parallel to the floor to detect obstructions and map the area. Similarly, room occupancy detectors usually do not produce an image.

But video smoke and flame detectors DO produce images as part of a process to detect products of combustion and/or flames. So do a lot of the traffic sensors on stoplights.

8

I’m having fun with ut, too but there’s an interesting FQ at the heart of it.

So say it was a prison. Obviously no robot vacs or unapproved cams.

9

Understood!

This particular client had no problem with optical flame detectors, which look for UV and IR signatures typical of flame, but they vetoed using an actual camera-based detection system. I’m the consultant/designer and they pay me, so I say, “OK. I can work with that.”

10

Back to the OP, I’m not sure I understand the objection to robotic devices specifically.

Whether a lawn service uses a robot mower or a traditional ride-on mower with a human driver on it, that thing could be festooned with hidden cameras and RF sensors while the driver, and the security forces, are oblivious to the threat.

For sure, vac or mower as explosive kamikaze drone is a bit of a different issue. But an evil organization intending to set off a bomb & wreck stuff & kill people probably doesn’t mind recruiting one more victim to serve as unwitting bomb-driver who’ll drive the bomb into position and be obliterated when the bad guys set off the payload remotely.

11

There are numerous appliances that connect to the internet. No fooling, our toaster/air fry/roast thing is internet enabled. We have a garage door thing that we can use to open/close/monitor status of the door/light over the internet from our phones. Not sure about our Roomba-like thing. Point is: if something connects outside, it can be used for tracking purposes. Case in point was use of personal health tracking devices (Fitbits, etc…) to determine routes of travel and #s of personnel at a location. Does the vac/mower do this without your knowledge??? Not to mention the cat on the Roomba - do you trust cats?

12

I referred to vacuum and lawnmowing robots specifically because,

  • unlike other devices, they are mobile, i.e. can move to places of nefarious interest, and,
  • unlike other devices, thy have a legitimate reason to be networked, to have an opening to look out (where the standard LIDAR sensor can have been replaced with a video camera without the end user being any wiser), and to swivel about looking around, and, most importantly IMO
  • unlike with humans and human operated devices, people are used to them moving in mysterious way. A cleaning person may challenged when they move around in an unusual way or without obvious reason, while with a vacuum robot it will be dismissed as one of the occasional stupid artefacts of their algorithm.