Federal transportation officials came to Allegheny County Thursday to show off a piece of new, million-dollar technology in the hope of wooing a potentially stingy buyer: the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
At center stage was a four-wheel robot named RABIT — Robotic Assisted Bridge Inspection Tool — that a team at Rutgers University designed and built for the Federal Highway Administration. Appearing like the lovechild of NASA’s Mars rover and a Zamboni, the RABIT rolled around the floor of the Heidelberg Volunteer Fire Department Thursday morning, forced to perform part of the demonstration of its structure-evaluating talents indoors before the inclement weather cleared and officials were able to move it outside.