Sarge The Robot

1 Who/What is he?
2 So What Did We Do?
3 So What'd We Get Out of This?
4 Thanks To the Oakland County Sheriff's Department
- 4.1 Return to the Team Outreach page

Who/What is he?

Sarge the Robot

Sarge is a robot that is owned by the local Oakland County Sheriff's department. Sarge goes with police liaisons to local elementary schools, and they give talks on a different kinds of safety. He is controlled by a remote by an officer that the kids cannot see. The operating officer also has a headset through which Sarge can "speak". Sarge also has a traffic light with red, yellow, and green light on his arm. In Sarge's stomach there is a screen with a TV. In his base is a speaker which plays music, sound from movies, or the operating officer's voice. Sarge is driven by two center-mounted wheels in his base.

So What Did We Do?

Remote Control Problems...

We were first contacted by Sarge after what was believed to be a conflict between new and old technology. While presenting at an elementary school, Sarge's right arm accidentally came down and hit a child standing nearby (not hard, he doesn't move very fast). It was believed at the time to be a conflict between the robot's wireless control and the school's new wireless internet. After an examination of the radio transmitter, however, we discovered that the very badly damaged antenna was more likely the source of the problem as the two frequencies were nowhere near each other (75 mHz vs. 2.4 gHz).

A Visit to the Chiropractor...

Sarge has a very heavy head with light up eyes and a mouth that lights up according to the intensity of the controlling officer's voice. The head also spins around 180° in each direction. However, the shaft that the head sits on is only 1/2" in diameter and therefore weak. We built Sarge a nylon "neck brace" so that the head can support more weight on and still turn freely.

Out With the Old, In With the New...

Inside of Sarge there was a mis-mash of players, ranging from an 8-track player to a VCR and a CD player. The screen they used was an old CRT TV that had also seen better days. This TV was also so large that the motor in the left arm had to be removed to accommodate it. We replaced this TV with a new portable TV designed for in-car use. It was purchased by the Rochester Community Schools. The TV was ideal because the sheriff's office was already in the process of converting all of their VHS tapes to DVDs and the TV came with a DVD player. After a little investigation, we wired the DVD player's IR receiver to the head of the robot so that the DVD player's remote would still function. We also added a power invertor so that if the Sheriff's Office ever wanted to change the TV again, it would be a simple unplug and replug process.

A Little Housekeeping...

Finally, we cleaned Sarge. We cleaned out his insides, dusted off electronics, changed some very old rechargeable batteries, made a more permanent mount for the DVD player, cleaned his chest window, and simply made him nicer to look at. Sarge also has a trailer that he travels in that received a good, thorough cleaning.

So What'd We Get Out of This?

A few things:

A fun project to do for the summer.
A way for our team to give back to community.
An opportunity to see technology from years gone past.
A chance to see the guts of a robot from the "real world".
License to borrow him for regionals! Look for Sarge in future years in the 245 pits, he'll be there to tell you all about the team and what we've done!