As John Stark Regional High School senior Alex Marko started moving the joysticks of a handheld controller, a large black robot on the floor began to roll ahead, and a voice from the surrounding audience piped up.
“Nice and slow.”
Marko was driving the Talon II, a CBRNE reconnaissance robot with the New Hampshire National Guard’s 12th Civil Support Team. CBRNE stands for chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, explosives – describing the types of incidents to which the unit is trained to respond.
Marko, a member of Oz-Ram, the FIRST Robotics Competition combined team made up of John Stark and Hopkinton Middle High School students, will be joining the Guard after graduating this year, and while talking with his recruitment officer, learned about the Civil Support Team robot. Connections were made with Oz-Ram coach Colin Stone, and before long a visit was arranged for one of the team’s off-season meetings.
“Here we are driving around a really expensive robot,” Marko said.
Under supervision from Staff Sgt. Slade Green, a Hillsboro native, some Oz-Ram teammates took turns trying to pick up a water bottle using only the camera feeds available on the control panel that looks like a giant Nintendo DS.
Brianna Meisser, a John Stark freshman, was the first to pull it off.
It was a chance for students to see a real-world application of a robot, certainly more sophisticated but not all that different from the ones they build each year for competitions.