Towards the end of our time on Kwaj, we took the Bomb Squad up on their
invitation to visit them one morning so that we could see their robot in action. The robot is what they use to pick up UXO (unexploded ordnance) that is too risky to pick up by hand - i.e. if they think it might explode, or if they don't know what it is.
Around 9:30am on Friday, January 13th, Marissa, Ben and I pedalled our bikes to the Bomb Squad's shed at the far end of the island, bakery goodies in hand. Then, over the next hour or two, we had a number of unique experiences that most people do not typically get the opportunity to have on their beach vacations!
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The robot! It has two cameras, speaker
and microphone, two sets of adjustable
tracks, and a six-axis robotic arm. |
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Bryon showing Marissa and I how to operate the computer
that controls the robot. |
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| Bryon the Bomb Squad Guy. |
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| Ben operating the robot via the computer. |
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Ben made the robot pick up this wrench from a shelf,
then drove it over to Bryon and released it into his hand. |
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Then, he sent the robot outside and drove it over a pallet, with
Bryon instructing him on how to raise and lower the tracks. |
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| Coming down off the pallet. |
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| My turn! I drove it over the pallet too. |
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When Bryon saw me posing with this sign,
he said we could keep it! It's now a bit
cleaner and hanging on our wall at home. |
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Bryon took the robotic arm off the robot and showed us how this
modified shotgun can be attached instead. The gun can be used
to fire water blasts at UXO. |
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Ben then did a training exercise where
Bryon told him to find the "bomb" hidden
behind this pile of bricks... without ever
looking at the robot, only at the computer. |
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He found it and pinpointed it with the
gun's sighting lasers. |
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| This was a sticker in the robot's storage van. |
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| Ben then got to try on the bomb suit! |
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They use the suit to pick up small UXO if
there's a risk it may explode, or if it's in a
location where they can't use the robot. |
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The suit weighs 85 pounds (39kg)...
you need someone to help you into it! |
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Space suit
Bomb suit! |
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| Ben went for a run in 30 degree heat, wearing an 85 pound suit! |
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Bryon then taught him how to quickly remove
the suit - like they'd need to if it caught fire. |
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| There it goes... |
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| ...Yep, my husband got to throw an $80,000 suit on the ground! |
And that was our morning with the Bomb Squad - such a fascinating visit! Thanks Bryon!!
5 comments:
Again, another great post! This was quite fun... too bad P. missed out. We'll have to do it again. :-)
I think you've earned the position of Kwaj tourism bureau. Great entries. :)
What an interesting morning - the bomb suit looks kinda bulky, bet it's not the most comfortable thing to wear!!!!
That would have been awesome!! How difficult was it to control the robot? I bet Ben was sweltering in the bomb suit!
Ben says the robot was "moderately difficult" to control... you had to stay quite focused. I didn't attempt anything too complicated (like picking up a tool), but it was still fairly challenging to make it go where I wanted it to go while not actually looking at it!
Thanks for your comments. :)
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