HazmatHazardous devices teams to compete at Robot Rodeo
Hazardous devices teams from around the Southwest will wrangle their bomb squad robots at the eighth annual Robot Rodeo beginning Tuesday, 24 June at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Hazardous devices teams from around the Southwest will wrangle their bomb squad robots at the eighth annual Robot Rodeo beginning Tuesday, 24 June at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
“The Robot Rodeo gives bomb squad teams the opportunity to practice and hone their skills in a lively but low-risk setting,” said Chris Ory of LANL’s Emergency Response Group and a member of the Lab’s hazardous devices team.
The rodeo gets under way at 8 a.m. in Technical Area 49, a remote section of Laboratory property near the entrance to Bandelier National Monument. Eight teams are scheduled to participate in the three-day competition. Teams compete in events and simulations, such as:
- searching vehicles for explosive devices
- recovery of a stolen weapon
- navigating obstacle courses
- investigating a possible homemade explosives lab
- operating in darkened buildings
- using common hand tools to disable a device
- attacking and rendering safe large vehicle bombs
- dealing with suicide bombers
An LANL release reports that teams scheduled to participate in this year’s event include New Mexico State Police, Los Alamos and Albuquerque Police departments, Dona Ana County Sheriff’s Office, Kirtland Air Force Base Explosives Ordinance Disposal team, Colorado Regional Bomb Squad, a team from the British army, and a U.S. Army team from Fort Carson, Colo.
The Laboratory — along with Sandia National Laboratories, the Region II International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators, REMOTEC, U.S. Technical Working Group, QinetiQ, WMD Tech, Tactical Electronics, iRobot, ICOR Technology Inc., NABCO, Mistral Security Inc., QSA Global and Stratom — sponsor the Robot Rodeo.
Watch a video of the 2012 Robot Rodeo at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
