News

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Students from Cuyahoga Community College's Youth Technology Academy have designed and built a specialized robot for use by the Cleveland police department's bomb squad.

 The all-terrain "YTA ScoutBot" allows officers to remotely view potentially hazardous areas to assess for threats. A panning camera on the mobile device provides a live video feed to the operator, who can be up to 400 feet away.

The police department didn't have a robot of this size and ability, said Tri-C spokesman John Horton. The robot is designed only for surveillance, unlike the robot that police in Dallas equipped with a remote-controlled bomb
to kill a suspect in Thursday night's deadly shootings.

Students recently presented the robot to bomb technicians so it could be available, if needed, at the Republican National Convention.

The battery-powered robot is roughly 12 inches tall, 18 inches long and 6 inches wide, making it small enough to roll under many vehicles to inspect  undercarriages, the college said. The six-wheeled robot has flashing red and blue LED lights. 

Officers from the bomb squad worked with the students on the design and stopped by the lab at Tri-C's Advanced Technology Training Center several times to visit with the team.

 "It is an honor to receive such an impactful tool built by the young men and women of Cuyahoga Community College," Police Chief Calvin D. Williams said in a release. "These award-winning students have gone above and beyond to assist law enforcement and make our community safer by participating in this project."

Engineering of the robot began in the fall, when the team received general requirements for the device. More than a dozen students worked on the robot between classes and various robotics competitions.

Students who worked on the project were also part of the academy team that won the 2016 FIRST Robotics Competition Championship, an international engineering showcase with 75,000 participants from 24 countries.

"The training that students receive in the robotics program has real world applications, as they learned while participating in this project," George Bilokonsky, executive director of the academy, said in a news release. "To use those skills to help the community only adds to their experience at Tri-C."