ROBOT OF THE WEEK: ROMEO HELPS BREAK SIEGE
by Hazed
Romeo the police robot successfully distracted an armed man who refused to come out, allowing a SWAT team to move in and arrest the man. But the poor droid suffered damage during the siege – a broken antenna.
It started when sheriff’s deputies in Henderson Country, North Carolina, wanted to talk to the man about an alleged previous assault on the cops. Not only did he refuse to talk, he opened fire, but fortunately didn’t hit anyone.
As is customary in potential armed siege situations, a SWAT team was called, who arrived in their heavily armed vehicle. But they came with an unusual team member – a remote-controlled robot which was part of the county’s elite mechanized bomb squad. Named Romeo, the robocop was also used by officers to avoid casualties in dangerous situations; this siege, which had lasted for 21 hours, was certainly one.
The brave little tin cop approached the house, and took several bullets which “dented its reinforced shell”. But it was able to get close to the gunman, which provided enough distraction for the SWAT team to move in and capture him.
Apart from his dented case, officers say that an antenna on top of Romeo was broken, but that will be taken care of during the necessary downtime for the team.
Score one for the robots!
