In the Ulster Museum’s new gallery The Troubles and Beyond, the central display showcases a Wheelbarrow bomb disposal robot. This machine was invented by the British Army in Northern Ireland in 1972 and used by officers of the 321 Explosive Ordinance Disposal Squadron (321EOD) to defuse car bombs planted by the Irish Republican Army (IRA). This article offers an alternative history of that machine – a dirtier history – that critically assesses its role during the Troubles. Centrally, the article contests the British Army’s preferred account of this machine as a ‘game-changing’ technological innovation in counterinsurgency, and their understanding of themselves as benign peacekeepers. Rather than figure the Wheelbarrow robot as an unreadable ‘black box’ used instrumentally by the superior human operators of 321EOD, this article seeks to foreground the unruly transfers of agency between the machine and its operators as they tested and experimented in the exceptional colonial laboratory of Northern Ireland. The article further explores the machine’s failures during bomb disposal episodes, the collateral damage that resulted, and the multiple and often unruly reactions of local populations who watched the Wheelbarrow robot at work. Providing a ‘dirty history’ of the Wheelbarrow robot is an effort to demonstrate that war can never be fully cleaned up, either through militarized mythologies of technological innovation or hopeful museum displays.

中文翻译：

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确保安全：拆弹机器人的肮脏历史

在阿尔斯特博物馆的新画廊 The Troubles and Beyond，中央显示器展示了一个独轮车拆弹机器人。这台机器是 1972 年在北爱尔兰的英国陆军发明的，被 321 爆炸物处理中队 (321EOD) 的军官用来拆除爱尔兰共和军 (IRA) 布置的汽车炸弹。本文提供了该机器的另一种历史——一段更肮脏的历史——批判性地评估了它在麻烦期间的作用。主要是，这篇文章对英国军队更喜欢将这台机器描述为反叛乱中“改变游戏规则”的技术创新以及他们将自己理解为良性维和人员的看法提出了质疑。与其将独轮车机器人视为一个无法阅读的“黑匣子”，不如 321EOD 的高级人类操作员工具化地使用它，本文旨在突出机器及其操作员在北爱尔兰特殊的殖民实验室中进行测试和实验时不守规矩的代理转移。文章进一步探讨了机器在拆弹过程中的故障、由此造成的附带损害，以及观看手推车机器人工作的当地居民的多重且经常不守规矩的反应。提供独轮车机器人的“肮脏历史”是为了证明战争永远无法完全清除，无论是通过军事化的技术创新神话还是充满希望的博物馆展示。文章进一步探讨了机器在拆弹过程中的故障、由此造成的附带损害，以及观看手推车机器人工作的当地居民的多重且经常不守规矩的反应。提供独轮车机器人的“肮脏历史”是为了证明战争永远无法完全清除，无论是通过军事化的技术创新神话还是充满希望的博物馆展示。文章进一步探讨了机器在拆弹过程中的故障、由此造成的附带损害，以及观看手推车机器人工作的当地居民的多重且经常不守规矩的反应。提供独轮车机器人的“肮脏历史”是为了证明战争永远无法完全清除，无论是通过军事化的技术创新神话还是充满希望的博物馆展示。