UGANDA: Ugandan high school students in Kampala build bomb disposal robot

Record ID: 357526

  • Title: UGANDA: Ugandan high school students in Kampala build bomb disposal robot
  • Date: 13th June 2012
  • Summary: KAMPALA, UGANDA (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF INJURED PEOPLE BEING CARRIED AWAY FROM A BOMBED RESTAURANT
  • Embargoed: 28th June 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Education
  • Reuters ID: LVA8ESCXIA2DD8LJV383BXSGDW49
  • Story Text: Three Ugandan high school students have created their own version of a bomb disposal robot that they hope will help local authorities better detect and disarm explosive devices.
    Made of aluminium pieces and powered by an electric motor, the robot sends messages to a control computer through wireless bluetooth signals that can travel over a 20 meter radius.
    A-level students Alvin Kabwama, David Tusubira and Nigel Kinyera built the robot with the support and guidance of Makerere University's Faculty of Technology, where a project known as iLabs connects students to the best laboratories in the world.
    However, the robot is not ready to pick up any real bombs just yet -- it is only a prototype. An up-graded version will be built soon by the university.
    "Well right now this is just a small model for what is supposed to be an EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) robot, so essentially what happens is that it has arms or claws that are remotely controlled by the user out there, so these arms are flexible enough to be able to say, carry the bomb around, cut a wire, maybe press a few buttons then it has a camera that is strategically positioned and can be moved around at different angles to be able to give a view of where the robot is going since it is wirelessly controlled."
    "What moves the robot are motors attached to wheels and it is a wireless communication of a bluetooth thing, in a real world... implementation it cannot use bluetooth because that is a very limited range, it has to be a a radio frequency communication architecture," said Tom Kigezi, bomb detector project team leader.
    If proven viable, the device would come in handy in a country that has been a victim of terrorist attacks before and faces a continuos threat from Somalia's al-Shabaab islamist group.
    In 2010, two bomb blasts killed 74 people watching the World Cup final on television at a restaurant in a rugby club in the capital Kampala.
    The functions of the robot are similar to the Dragon Runner military robot which is used by US marines to get into inaccessible areas in combat or insecure situations.
    It has an internet enabled camera mounted to the front that provides a video feed to the control computer, providing views into areas that are unsafe or are too small for humans.
    The students say they hope the robot will help save lives and also reduce the danger bomb squads are exposed to during bomb handling.
    "With all the al-Shabaab terrorist attacks that are going on, you put yourself in the position of a person who lost a friend a colleague, or a relative in the July 11th attack of 2010 and then that should inspire you to make something like an EOD robot because, definitely you wouldn't want anyone to go through that pain again so you want to save people that pain, so basically that is what inspired us as well," said Alvine Kabwama, robot inventor.
    Judith Nabakoba is the Uganda police spokesperson, she says that the construction of the robot demonstrates local ability in the development of machinery to fight terrorism in Uganda.
    "I would say that it is a good initiative and we welcome it as Uganda Police Force, because we believe that if such capacities can be built from within the country, then it can be better for us as far as preventing terrorism or fighting terrorism is concerned in this country," she said.
    East Africa is on high alert following threats and attacks in Kenya and Uganda by al-Shabaab militants in the past few years. The United States is offering rewards of up to 7 million US dollars for information leading to the location of seven key leaders of the al Qaeda-linked militant group.
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