Pole-climbing robot has potential for disaster-response communications

Recently, I chatted with Carol Perry, the director of youth activities for the Radio Club of America, about Devlin Murray and Chris Blackwood, two New Jersey high school students who were invited to make a presentation at the RCA’s technical symposium held last weekend in Orlando. Perry had discovered the duo through a friend who had mentored the youngsters and told me that they were going to “blow me away.”

Well, she was right, and I wasn’t the only one blown away by their presentation. Murray and Blackwood are members of a robotics club that designed and built a robot capable of climbing light poles. Attached to the robot is a radio antenna. Their idea is that the device could be used to restore emergency communications quickly in the aftermath of a natural disaster that has decimated traditional communications systems. Their theory is that light poles generally are in such ample supply that even the most horrific storm won’t knock them all down.

Carol Perry, the RCA director who discovered Devlin Murray and Chris Blackwood, holds up the club’s new “Young Achiever of the Year” patch. 

Murray and Blackwood—who were awarded the RCA’s 2013 Young Achiever award—showed a video of their invention in action. The contraption is housed in a rugged case that is compact enough to fit in any emergency vehicle. Once unleashed from the case, a few cables and the antenna are attached. The rig is attached to a pole, and is propelled skyward by a small motor that rotates four small wheels. It’s in place within just a few minutes, requires minimal tools for its deployment, and is adaptable to just about any type of light pole. While it’s easier to deploy with two people, Murray and Blackwood say it can be done by just one person.

The team designed the robot with several safety features. The rig essentially operates as would a Class 1 lever, which means that friction created by its weight and gravity holds the rig securely to the pole, and a clamping mechanism ensures that it stays put once power to the motor is cut. Finally, they used a worm-drive mechanism to drive the rig up the pole while preventing it from inadvertently reversing direction.

Here’s where things really get interesting. They designed, engineered and built this thing in just 100 days, using off-the-shelf parts that cost about $300. The motor is a common automobile window motor, and the aluminum used is the kind one would find in any erector set.

John Powell, chairman of the National Public Safety Communications Council’s (NPSTC) technology committee and a member of our editorial advisory board, was impressed.

“I’m going to try to get them to write something up that we can post on the NPSTC website,” Powell said. “What emergency-response agency doesn’t have light poles in their jurisdiction? And, around an incident, that elevation is all you need—you don’t need to get 100 feet into the air. If you’re talking about covering a couple of blocks around an emergency incident, 30 feet is probably all you need.”

I asked Powell about the grade of aluminum that Murray and Blackwood used for their robot. When I hear “erector set” I immediately think of something that is sort of flimsy, so I wanted to know whether he had any concerns about the contraption’s durability, and whether it would stand up to the rigors of public-safety use. Powell said it would need to be tested thoroughly to ensure that it would withstand significant winds—if the antenna were to move out of alignment, performance could be degraded significantly, depending on the type of antenna—but he had no significant qualms.

“This stuff is used a lot, and it seems to hold up,” he said. “We have solar systems installed all over the country in high-wind areas that are using this [type of aluminum] as the basic component.”

John Facella, senior vice president of RCC Consultants and the RCA’s technical symposium chairman, was equally impressed.

“I thought it was just amazing,” said Facella, who previously was director of public safety for Harris Corp. “It’s obviously a niche product, but I would argue that every emergency-management agency in the country—there’s typically one in every county, and there about 6,000 counties in the U.S. alone—would be interested in having such a device in order to quickly raise antennas when there has been devastation, like what we saw with Hurricane Katrina. … You can quickly throw an antenna up a 10- or 20-foot pole and start getting coverage immediately—that’s fantastic.”

Facella equally was impressed by the fact that Murray and Blackwood developed the robot as an open-source product and initially wanted to let others use it free of charge.

“That’s very unique, very 21^st century,” he said. “There’s different thinking from these young kids [today]. They say, ‘Why should we make money? Why don’t we just make it available?’”

I, too, admire the nobility that Murray and Blackwood are exhibiting by their selflessness—I am not so old that I don’t remember the idealistic days of my own youth. But I also think a couple of really smart kids are making a really dumb mistake, if they just give this away. Perry told me that Murray and Blackwood are working with a patent attorney who discovered them at the Dayton (Ohio) Hamvention held last May, something that Murray’s father confirmed.

I hope something comes of that, because they should sell their concept or at least license it. Believe me, once people see this thing in action, they won’t have any trouble attracting suitors.