the integration of advanced robots into bomb disposal units to increase safety and efficiency for human technicians. These robotic systems, which include both wheeled and quadruped (dog-like) robots, are used to remotely inspect and disarm explosive devices, thereby minimizing risk to personnel. Recent developments include robots capable of performing complex tasks like navigating stairs and firing disruptors, as well as using AI for enhanced speed and safety
00:00I think what people know most about the bomb squad, if they know anything, is that we have robots.
00:14If two robots break, you call another team and you get a third robot and then a fourth robot.
00:20We had a rule that basically you didn't put your foot somewhere unless the robot went there first.
00:25There's an old saying among bomb technicians, distance is your friend.
00:34We heard it a lot during a recent visit to a U.S. Army training facility outside Washington, D.C.,
00:40where we got a robotic crash course in explosive ordnance disposal.
00:45But what does distance is your friend mean when there are lives, including your own, on the line?
00:52We went to Niagara Falls, New York, to meet Brian Kastner, a former bomb tech and author of The Long Walk, to find out.
01:01I was an Air Force officer for eight years, and then I moved over to the bomb squad.
01:07And then I did two tours in Iraq with the 101st Airborne supporting the Kurds and being the bomb squad for a city of a couple hundred thousand, essentially.
01:19Well, on my second tour in Iraq, over about six months, we did 800, 900 missions.
01:26So out of that many missions, a good two-thirds of them are going to be using the robot in some way.
01:34The U.S. Department of Defense began rolling out these small ground robots in the early 2000s.
01:41Today, two robotic platforms dominate every bomb tech's toolkit.
01:46There's the Pac-Bot and the Talon.
01:50Both are fitted with cameras, an arm and a claw, and are operated remotely with video game-style controllers.
01:57At Bomb Techs, we have the absolute best toys.
02:00I've seen a guy knock out the car window, grab onto the frame of the door, and lift himself, lift the robot, up inside the car, get in the front seat, and then start taking apart the device.
02:13That's what the Pac-Bot can do.
02:15But the Talon is the workhorse. The Talon is the go-to. It's the tank. It busts through everything. It is nearly indestructible.
02:24I think when you start off, everything is just cool. It's cool that the robot does this thing.
02:31Eventually, the cool factor goes away, and it's just another tool in your toolbox.
02:39We were so spoiled. We had this massive 47,000-pound truck, and we could fill it full of millions of dollars worth of gear.
02:49We could take all these different pieces of technology, but the main thing, like I say, that everybody knows is we have this robot.
02:57And by 2006, 95% of the time, you would have the robot there.
03:04In 2006, the Pentagon reported 3,000 Improvised Explosive Devices, or IEDs, in Afghanistan, and nearly 31,000 IEDs in Iraq.
03:16Peak IED hit a year later, when Kastner was finishing active duty in Iraq, where 33,000 IEDs were reported.
03:26I sometimes think that, especially, say, in the Iraq War, each side sent their champion into battle.
03:33Their champion was the IED, and our champion was this robot.
03:38We had the two go and fight.
03:46When the war got started, we had so few robots that they were just really precious.
03:54When one blew up, it was out of the fight, and it meant that you had to be doing a lot of this work hands-on.
03:59And so, the robots were so precious, you really did protect them, initially.
04:05The military couldn't provide solid data on the number of bomb robots deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan between 2004 and 2014.
04:14But a representative with the military's counter IED agency said the summary answer would be, quote, in the thousands.
04:21Eventually, we just bought so many of the things, they almost became disposable.
04:28And we would have a whole stack of blown-up robots in the corner, and I loved to see it.
04:34Every blown-up robot meant that somebody lived.
04:36We did name some of our robots.
04:40We tended to give our robots names either of UFC fighters or porn stars, basically as a giant middle finger.
04:54I think that this idea of naming the robot and really growing attached to it and thinking of it as another person and another member of the team,
05:03that was really true when we had so few of them.
05:07And then, eventually, we got an army of robots, and we were able to maybe use them as they were really intended.
05:18The robots kind of transitioned, you know, away from us.
05:23The last thing that you want to do is be laying on top of the bomb cutting the red wire.
05:27So we back up and we use a robot, and then we back up and use a drone,
05:30and then we back up again, and we back up again, and we back up.
05:33But sometimes, you're still all the way right there.
05:41There is no worse feeling in the world than sitting on a road, checking in with the robot, saying everything is clear,
05:48packing up and driving away, and then seeing a detonation in the rearview mirror.
05:52Because you sent a patrol in, and you said the area was safe, and it wasn't.
05:59And then you're turning around, and you are.
06:04You're picking up pieces of the suicide bomber.
06:07You're picking up pieces of American soldiers.
06:11You don't use a robot to pick up pieces of people.
06:14You do that yourself.
06:15Even the distance provided by military robots doesn't shield soldiers and bomb techs like Kastner from the horrors of war.
06:26Do you have PTSD?
06:28No, I don't actually have post-traumatic stress disorder, but you can be plenty crazy and not have that particular diagnosis.
06:36It just means that in the manual where they look up these diagnoses that you have eight of the required twelve things or something.
06:44So I don't have enough of those.
06:47The most effective way to get past these things is forgetting.
06:53I did try a lot of things.
06:54Writing the book was my way of telling the story to explain what happened to me.
06:59But I did try yoga.
07:01I tried alcohol.
07:02I drank a lot.
07:03And if drinking had worked, I probably would have kept drinking.
07:08I think it is the writing.
07:09I think writing gives you space to forget.
07:13Writing the book, I was really conscious of choosing to be a writer, wanting to do a good job, and wanting to tell a story that other people might want to read.
07:23So all of my scribbled notes from my therapist...
07:26Do you miss the war?
07:27Oh, I miss it.
07:28Oh, I miss it a lot.
07:29Because time slows down, and it's peaceful in some way.
07:34You know that you're alive.
07:36I don't know if I miss the robots.
07:39I don't know if I miss the technology.
07:41I miss the guys.
07:43I love the men I served with more than the robots.
07:45I love changing the debate.
07:46I love being the robots.
07:47I know what is trying to decide.
07:48I love saving the robots.
07:49I miss it.
07:50I will leave my way of believing the robots.
07:52ghoul and haw pidgin deathiles Π±ΡΠ» done and MΓͺme something wrong.
07:54I know there are all reasons why don't you feel like they'll just come out.
07:55I miss it again.
07:56Cool, and I miss it.
07:57Don't you rate this at all.
07:58Let's go to slavery.
07:59Go to the two.
08:005, 8, 9 and 9 well- spray.
08:01Well, my getting here right.
08:02The aim was it, i guess this is something that I have posted.
08:03We've got nothing to tell you.
08:05We've got nothing to know about, I keep ΠΏΠ°ΠΌera but hope.
08:06This Sylvester, where I keep you are now putting myself Governations
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