Problem Solved-US Border Patrol

There are tunnels underneath the US/Mexico Border. They are used to transport drugs, weapons, and people - including human trafficking. The US Department of Homeland Security/Border Patrol found me through my videos on You Tube. They wanted a better way to search these tunnels.

Imaging being a border patrol agent and being tasked with investigating a dark, dangerous underground world. While some of these tunnels have elaborate lighting and ventilation, other may be pitch black. The DHS needed a solution which was lightweight, portable and could see in the dark. They requested a specialized robot with infra-red vision that they could send ahead of an agent to search for illicit activity.

One of the challenges for this build, included designing something with a very slim width that could fit inside these narrow tunnels. It needed to emit an infrared beam that enabled the onboard camera to “see”. It also needed to work underground. I wound up modifying a SPTM or Stealth Pan Tilt Minibot -since it was already narrow, lightweight, and portable. This tactical-grade crawler has a pan tilt camera mounted on the top deck and just needed IR vision. I used a camera with an IR sensor and installed and an IR Illuminator to the pan tilt mechanism.

This system is much safer than the old technique: So instead of sending an agent in with a handgun, flashlight and camera, these brave border patrol agents can now send the bot in to do all the dirty, difficult, and dangerous work. The bot keeps the agents out of harm’s way. They can now hang back while the tunnels are inspected by tactical robots!