Meet WALL-E, Escambia County Sheriff SWAT

April 1, 2011

A robot nicknamed WALL-E is being credited with aiding in the peaceful end of an eight-hour standoff Thursday morning in Cantonment.

WALL-E is the newest member of the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team. A grant from the Department of Homeland Security funded the purchase of the ICOR Caliber robot about three weeks ago.

“What you do of course in this instance is you make sure that we insert the robot into these areas so we don’t have to put someone in there and put a SWAT officer at risk,” Sheriff David Morgan said.

With two-way audio, a live video feed and a claw-arm, WALL-E allowed the SWAT team to have eyes and ears in each room of the Pauline Street home without putting an officer in danger. It is only about three feet long and weighs about 200 pounds. The little guy can drag about 250 pounds — enough to pull people out of harm’s way, climb stairs at a 40-45 degree angle and zoom along at five mph.

“I felt a lot safer and secure knowing that the robot had already cleared the place for us,” SWAT team member Sgt. Ted Roy said.

For more on Thursday’s SWAT standoff, with a photo gallery, click here.

Pictured top: WALL-E, the newest robotic member of the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team. Pictured inset: WALL-E heads toward a house where a suspect refused to come out Thursday. Pictured below: WALL-E  speeds down Pauline Street. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.

Comments

10 Responses to “Meet WALL-E, Escambia County Sheriff SWAT”

  1. sue stuckey on April 3rd, 2011 3:23 pm

    Hey, this is one cool little guy. I’m glad to see that WALL-E can take some of the pressure off ECSO. They risk their lives every day for us but some people put posts on here putting them down. Would you be willing to put your life on the line for the county? If so, get the training and let’s see you on the job.

  2. Jane on April 2nd, 2011 8:33 pm

    So if we let a NASCAR team have a go at him can we speed him up???!!!

  3. Clinton Curly Brooks on April 1st, 2011 11:43 pm

    Hey,I love it.No food or coffee or coke.It’s never late,always in uniform and will obey orders.

  4. 357 S@W on April 1st, 2011 1:38 pm

    THANK GOODNESS FOR WALL-E AND THE ESCO. TAKES A LITTLE FUN OUT OF SWAT, BUT THANK GOODNESS THEY WILL GET TO GO HOME TO THEIR FAMILIES. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.

  5. Name (required) on April 1st, 2011 12:47 pm

    More evidence the ECSO has been moving out of the dark ages!

    I am very glad to see innovative approaches to keeping officers safe…
    … as well as offenders. Wally is much better for the ‘perp’ then going
    in with guns blazing, which many law breakers would require.

    Many bad guys who might elect ’suicide by cop’ will feel awfully silly
    pointing a gun at a glorified remote control car as a ‘last stand’ :)

    Great stuff!

  6. Molino Man on April 1st, 2011 9:43 am

    WALL-E is great . Just wondering if he’s shot or broken doing his job… who will foot the bill to repair him..? Just wondering.. Good job ECSO & all LEO’s involved.

  7. Terri Sanders on April 1st, 2011 9:28 am

    If it were one of your family members who would have had to go into the building,I bet you would have fell in love with Wall-E. This 200 pounds of junk as you called it will save more lives and diffuse more dangerous situations without involving the possibilty of endangering innocent lives as well as law officers lives.Their lives are already too much at risk.This is one place I have absolutely no problem with my tax dollars creating this little guy!

  8. T on April 1st, 2011 9:25 am

    I think we need about 100 of them. Now if we could teach them to drive, and replace some of the bad apples.

  9. what? on April 1st, 2011 8:03 am

    Justice,
    Thats stupid……….
    But it’s pretty cool!!!!

    Which is it?

  10. Justice agertin on April 1st, 2011 7:57 am

    thats stupid…….. nobody wants a 200 pound chunk of metal…. but its pretty cool!!!! :)

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News