鈥淲elcome to Recon Rally. In this scenario, neighbours have been complaining that something smelly is coming from a nearby house. You鈥檝e been called to the scene. Go.鈥�
This is what you鈥檇 hear if you were on one of the eight military and civilian bomb squad teams competing in the Robot Rodeo last week, an annual event hosted by Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. The competition aims to test bomb squad technicians in a series of challenges that put their day-job skills to use in situations they may not regularly encounter. 听
Most teams used a version of the Remotec Andros, which is a standard issue bomb-defusing robot. It has four tyres plus a long tread on smaller wheels for extra traction, as well as a mechanical arm and gripper.
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Each team had to complete a series of gruelling tasks, including navigating obstacle courses, blast zones, and even clandestine drug labs. Over the course of 4 days, each team tackles 10 challenges, plus a final scenario where they pair up with another squad they don鈥檛 usually work with.
One task involved collecting forensic data in a post-blast investigation. 鈥淭hey go into the crater and look for the timing device, the fusing device, and collect whatever they can to see if we can get fingerprints,鈥� says Jake Deuel, coordinator of the event.
Another scenario included a military transport truck that had come under attack by several drones that crashed into it, attempting to blow it up. The teams had to use their robots to recover the hard drives from the drones, as well as the attached explosives 鈥� inert mock-ups of real-world explosive devices bomb squads encounter.
鈥淲e had to navigate lots of obstacles 鈥� culverts, boxes, gravel piles 鈥� and search a semi-truck with a flatbed trailer,鈥� says Zac Cancilla, from the Albuquerque Police Department鈥檚 team, which ended up winning the competition. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 know how many drones there were or when to stop searching,鈥� he says.
The teams have to work out for themselves how best to use robots at each the scene. Some used drones flying above to get a sense of the blast radius, and put radiation detectors in the grippers of the robots on the ground to test for danger. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e being asked to show agility way outside their normal job scope. This isn鈥檛 just three sticks of dynamite, go disable it,鈥� says Deuel.
鈥淚t鈥檚 stressful,鈥� says Cancilla. 鈥淲e need to complete each scenario in 90 minutes. A post-blast investigation in the real world can take days and days.鈥�
Deuel says the time limit and lack of knowledge are meant to put the teams under stress. 鈥淥ur litmus test is if they鈥檙e not cursing us at some point in the scenario, we haven鈥檛 pushed them hard enough.鈥�
