Bangor councilors meet Andros the robot

BANGOR – The long arm of the law in eastern Maine just got a lot longer with the introduction of the Andros F6A, a police robot designed to make dangerous situations safer.

Squat, with a large arm protruding from it and nubby tires, the Andros looks more like a Mars rover than Robocop, but the city of Bangor sees it as an effective tool not only for handling extreme situations such as finding and helping to detonate a bomb, but also aiding police in monitoring and resolving standoffs peacefully.

“We’ve come a long way,” said Councilor Peter D’Errico, Bangor International Airport director from 1970 to 1990, who now serves on the Bangor City Council’s Government Operations Committee. The committee got the first glimpse of what the robot can do in council chambers Tuesday afternoon.

The Andros is only the second such robot in the state. The Maine State Police already has one. At a cost of $137,711, the machine is expensive, but in Bangor’s case, the cost was covered through federal Homeland Security funds. The robot could be used anywhere needed, although primarily in Penobscot County.

Tethered to a special computer by fiber-optic cable, the 300-pound robot rolled down one side of the chamber room during Tuesday’s demonstration. Guided by Bangor police Officer Steve Jordan, who monitored the robot’s movements via two of its three onboard video cameras, the machine headed for a desk with a water bottle sitting on it.

With mechanical exactness, the arm extended and reached for the bottle. The claw can apply up to 50 pounds of pressure, but in this case, as it would if handling an explosive, the arm gently clasped the water bottle and lifted it. The robot then carried it to a table where the councilors were seated and gently placed it down.

Bangor police Sgt. Thomas Reagan, one of three Bangor police officers trained in using and maintaining the robot, said the machine has many applications, although primarily it is being considered for the bomb disposal unit. With 1,200 feet of fiber-optic cable, bomb disposal technicians can remain quite a distance away from an explosive while the robot X-rays it and carries it to a special containment vehicle for disposal.

With minimal extension, the robot claw can carry up to 80 pounds, but that drops to about 15 pounds when the arm is fully extended to 6 feet. That’s still strong enough to carry a pipe bomb or other explosive, Reagan said.

Bangor police officials said the robot is strong enough to pull an injured officer to safety..

The Andros robot comes equipped with a microphone and speaker so Reagan said it allows communication between police and someone barricaded in a home or building. With an infrared camera, the robot has applications for nighttime monitoring or surveillance.

Its rubber tires can be removed – leaving the robot to move on its smaller metal wheels – narrowing the width of the machine to about 17.5 inches, narrow enough to roll down the aisle of an airplane, for example. It can climb steps and its highest camera can be raised about 7 feet.

It is also rugged. Lt. Jeff Millard said similar robots have been used to check caves for terrorists in Afghanistan.

The robot can reach speeds of 6 mph – certainly not cheetahlike, but it doesn’t have to be fast.

“It’s not for racing, it’s for picking things up,” Jordan told a reporter as he steered the robot down a hallway at City Hall after the demonstration.