For instance, a robot might detect a suspicious person racing through a crowd. The team could follow this person wherever they go, using a planning feature to determine which cameras are needed and where robots need to go to get a better look.

There's a lot of work still to be done. Cornell has yet to finish a system that it can test, let alone put it into service. However, it would likely be useful for far more than building security. The US Office of Naval Research is backing the project, and there's hopes that the Navy could use this to coordinate drones. No matter how this gets used, it's reasonable to say that automatons won't be lone wolves for too much longer.