For 20 hours a day, seven days a week, a security robot rolls around the old Kansas City Star building on the 1600 block of McGee Street, like the 21st century version of a street patrolling beat cop.
No, the robot is not an employee of the Kansas City Police Department. But, in some ways, the white, bullet-shaped, sub-5-foot, 420-pound robot is like a neighborhood beat cop as it glides its way through the Crossroads district on four wheels, gathering data from its cameras and greeting passersby.
The robot, named Lance, is the newest security officer for Patmos Tech, the software and data hosting company that has transformed The Star’s old building into a data center in the heart of the city. Lance has been around for nearly a month for Patmos, which has only been in the building since December, to aid its human security team.
Bringing in assistance was needed, Chief Operating Officer Joe Morgan said, because the company quickly ran into security issues around their newly acquired home…