BANGOR – Its blue wheels came off a baby stroller, and the rest of the parts for the student-built remote-controlled robot were scavenged from different areas at the United Technologies Center.

The UTC students spent the last month and a half building and testing the robot and on Monday will be shipping the device around the world to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, to see if they can control it from Bangor.

“We’ll be sending a signal to our satellite and it will send it down to Kyrgyzstan and the computer” on the robot, Newburgh resident Mike Anderson, 17, said Thursday while he and other students practiced operating the robot.

As he spoke, Mindy Peirce, 16, of Corinth entered numbers on her classroom computer to make the robot, which stands about a foot tall with a Web camera-equipped arm extending about a foot higher, move back and forth and then turn left and right.

The robot, called the UTC Explorer, was packed into an insulated box on Friday and was scheduled to be shipped Monday by FedEx to the former Soviet republic.

“We have about $200 [invested] in the robot – it’s all junk, literally junk,” said Ron Canarr, UTC electronics and robotics teacher, who has taught the constantly evolving class since the program started seven years ago. “That’s not counting the laptop. It’s used and probably cost $300.”

The low-end Compaq laptop sits atop the robot, decorated with reflective stickers of the United States flag and a paper card that is signed by all 30 of the students who worked on the project. The UTC Explorer is equipped with three Web cameras that each cost about $6 and the body is constructed of thin metal strips that look like Erector-Set pieces donated by the high school technology school’s maintenance department.

“The whole idea is to send this over there and see if [the students] can control it [from here],” Canarr said. To complete the project, the students have had to “demonstrate their abilities in computer technology, programming, electronics and, obviously, robotics and engineering.

“The kids are running the whole show,” he added later. “It’s 100 percent them. I’m just the watchdog.”

The idea to ship the device halfway around the world developed after a student asked Canarr how far away the remote-controlled robot would work.

“I said, ‘I think we can do this across the world,'” he said.

Canarr’s brother, Rick Canarr, was stationed with the U.S. Air Force in Afghanistan at the time, and after a few e-mails were exchanged and the military higher-ups gave authorization, the decision was made to ship the robot there. Rick Canarr has since been transferred to Kyrgyzstan, however, changing the robot’s travel plans slightly.

As part of the military’s requirements, the entire robot had to be constructed with an open design so it could be easily checked, which has led to a dozen different designs. A 12-volt rechargeable battery runs the base, and the computer has its own battery.

“We’ve built some redundancy … so if there is a problem, the main camera will still work,” Canarr said.

The $600 cost to send the UTC Explorer around the world, which is more than the cost to build the robot, is being covered by the school and Canarr. And because the return trip would cost considerably more, the device will probably return in pieces, the teacher said.

A test robot is living at Canarr’s house, seven miles away from UTC, that the students are using to practice. Typically, six robots are constructed during the course of the class.

UTC school leaders couldn’t say enough about the hands-on learning environment provided through the class.

“Awesome,” is how Merle Adams, UTC dean of students, described the program. Greg Miller, UTC director, added, “It’s just such an incredibly good thing. This is what education can really be.”

The 18 students that take the class in the morning and 12 afternoon students have been studying a wide range of subjects beyond robotics and engineering to ensure the device will work.

Old Town resident Terran Stone, 17, and Matthew Treadwell, 17, of Clifton were using their classroom computers Thursday to check the weather in Kyrgyzstan and had pulled up aerial satellite photos of the destination. Stone explained that the signal the students are using is similar to the digital signal used by television and satellite broadcasting stations.

“If you have a tree in the way, the connection will really blow,” Stone said.

Treadwell added that cloud cover could also mess up a satellite signal.

Both teens said they are anxiously waiting for the test run.

They are not alone.

“I’m pretty nervous about running it from here,” their teacher said. “We’re 99 percent sure we can do that, but there is still that 1 percent.”