Electro Bot - children design idea to deal with downed electrical wires

The Electro Bot

By Thomas Wolhbruck and Tamir Stein

Remember Hurricane Sandy? We couldn't trick or treat because of downed electrical wires. Kids from the Hartshorn School Lego Robotics team have an idea for a robot that can sense whether a downed electrical wire is dead or alive.

The robot named Electro Bot has a special sensor to detect a live wire. The wheels are designed like a tank to get over rough terrain. It has a remote control that could be operated by the Fire Department. The remote control has a monitor on it that displays what the robot is seeing. The robot sees through a camera that is mounted on its head. The purpose of the camera is to let the person operating the robot to be at a safe distance and see what he or she is doing. The computer part of the body is at the torso of the robot and it is protected by rubber. It has two arms and one is to hold on to the wire and the other has a sensor to detect whether the wire is dead or alive.

The team named Thor’s Hammer will present the Electro Bot in an upcoming Lego Robotics tournament.