OLATHE, KS (KCTV) -
A police robot had been inoperable for about four years until high school students were able to fix it.
A robot nicknamed SWAT BOT had been inoperable until the student resource officer at Olathe Northwest High School contacted the engineering teacher.
It took only a matter of days until the robot was fixed, and now the Olathe Police Department can use the robot.
"Our tactical commander contacted the robotic program at Olathe Northwest High School and asked them if the students would be interested in trying to fix it," said Sgt. Grant Allen with the Olathe Police Department.
Jordan Brouwer, a junior at Olathe northwest, said a huge robot was dropped off about a week before winter break.
"My brother was coming home, who is actually majoring in robotics engineering out in Boston, and he decided to take a look at it because he is actually going into making defense robots," said Jordan Brouwer.
That is all it took - one look by her brother.
"This is something he knew a lot about ... he really understood and knew the model type as soon as he looked at it," said Brouwer.
They did some diagnostic work, and Brouwer explains the rest.
"We realized the remote just wasn't connecting to the robot, so we actually figured out that it ran on a FM radio signal instead of what it usually runs on now. So we just went home to our basement, found a TV antenna, hooked it up to the remote, and it started functioning," said Brouwer.
And she says the batteries needed replacing too.
Police said the department searched for someone to repair it for months and couldn't find anyone. The robot maker was out of business.
"We would like to thank the Olathe Northwest High School, and the robotics team as well as the school district because without their assistance I don't believe we would be able to get this operational again," said Allen.
Police, who only had to pay for the new batteries, now say the will call the engineering students at the high school for future repairs.
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