So how do robots work to protect you? @mcfrs shows @WTOP pic.twitter.com/GeS9hy1uLs
— Kate Ryan (@KateRyanWTOP) July 11, 2016
GAITHERSBURG, Md. — The role of a robot in Thursday’s police shootings in Dallas has raised a number of questions about a tool many police and fire departments possess.
In Montgomery County, the Fire and Rescue Service maintains a variety of robots. Some are as large as bobcats (small vehicles often outfitted with plows to clear sidewalks). On the opposite end of the spectrum, some of their robots are as small as computer tablets, able to help operators see inside small spaces or under cars.
The Fire and Rescue Service’s bomb squad also uses a type of robot that rolls on wheels outfitted with the kind of traction device one might see on a tank. The robot has an articulated arm with a grasping tool that is so deft it can pick up a coin off the pavement, unlock a car door and, in the case of a demonstration for WTOP, pick up a reporter’s iPhone while it films the robot’s operations.
The fire department has had robots for at least two decades, Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein said, but the technology is changing all the time.
The most obvious advantage of having the robotic detection devices is that they allow bomb technicians to observe conditions or an object while remaining out of harms way, Goldstein said.
“I can repair or replace a robot,” but no one can replace a human being, he said.
Police agencies are now being asked about the use of robots to deliver a device to disable or even kill an assailant, as happened in Dallas. But for fire departments, the use is clear: the robots can get into buildings, get under cars and approach suspicious packages while keeping technicians — and the public — safe.
Goldstein said the way in which the robots are used is determined on a case-by-case basis.
Montgomery County’s Fire and Rescue Service is one of 40 departments across the country outfitted with robots. The Montgomery County Police Department also has robots, which typically are used to provide police with visual information as they approach a situation.
