4-Hers build “Robo Cop”

HUNTINGTON, Ind. (Indiana’s NewsCenter) – The Huntington County 4-H FIRST Robotics team created a robot to help police officers develop better reaction times in the field.

The teens built the robot, nicknamed Fred, throughout the summer for Huntington City Police to use for target practice.

The process also allowed the robotics team to learn valuable leadership and engineering skills.

“Our lead engineer, Kaleb Fowler, he got to experience a lot of things we don’t normally get to do with regular robots,” said Student Project Engineer Gracie Fowler. “He got to learn how to weld and braze and we all got to learn how to spray paint this year. And a lot of our younger kids that are on the team got to come in and learn skills that they wouldn’t get to learn normally.”

Fowler says this was an excellent way to give back to a community who has given to them.

“Our community has given us so much in the forms of sponsorships, mentors, and supplies that when the police department asked us to give back we couldn’t say no,” said Fowler. “This was a good chance for us to give the police department something they can use and develop skills for us.”

The county and city police will begin target practice on Fred in the coming weeks.

Indiana’s NewsCenter is told depending on the officers’ aim; Fred should be a member of the force for quite some time.

via http://www.indianasnewscenter.com/news/local/52985622.html