Have Robot, Will Travel...or not...

[krich]

I travel a lot for my job.  As I was walking through the airport today, I was thinking it would be nice to bring parts of my projects along to mess around with during down time.

As I was going through the "purple glove treatment" at security, I realized that bringing a circuit board with wires sticking out everywhere, with a dynamite looking device attached (the battery) might raise some unwanted attention at the airport.  Okay, okay, I wouldn't have the battery actually attached for travel, but you get my point.

Have any of you "traveled" with your robots before?  I thought of putting it in checked luggage, but I'm afraid some paranoid TSA employee might wheel my bag out back, throw it into a bomb crucible and blow it up.  Just to be safe.

I guess this is one of those things that have to stay at home.  Thoughts?

Ken.

[cooldog]

just don't bring lipo batterys

[fr4ncium]

I have traveled with electronic components before - a couple GPUs for my computer.  I only had carry-ons so I had to go through security with them.  They pulled them out of the bag and asked what they were, and then let me move on. 

I'd say your best bet would be
-keep them in your carry-on
-get a nice, *professional* looking project box to put it in (if it's got loose wires everywhere and they have to fish out a bunch of random parts from your carry-on, it's going to make them mad).  Make it so they take out one container that has all your stuff inside it
-and no big batteries

But I don't know if even that would be a good idea.

[dunk]

i'm going through airports a few times a week with toolkit full of all sorts of unusual devices.
generally as long as you check it there is no problem.
remove batteries from all electronic equipment and you should be good.

-get a nice, *professional* looking project box to put it in

this actually works against you.
my usual toolkit is a black pelican case and i'm usually asked "is that a toolkit?"
whatever i answer i'm always sent to over sized luggage with said toolkit which burns an extra 5 minutes.

dunk.

[Admin]

They have never had a problem with any of my robots . . . just make sure your batteries can be taken out and individually inspected (the scanners cannot see through a battery).

The only time you will have a problem is when they are badly trained or not following protocol, as has occasionally caused me problems. If they complain, insist they use that bomb sniffing machine (forgot what it was called) on your robot.

[ScorpIon]

Couldn't you transport your robot in parts and assemble it at work? If they have a problem, just pick the components up and let them inspect 'em.

(I pictured some scene where a full-scale android reacted like a human whenever they tripped that alarm-doorway-thingy without knowing they would, heh)