Black-I
Robotics was incorporated in 2006 though work began in early 2005. A
founder, Brian Hart, started the company with business partners Richard
Hart and Arthur Berube after Brian’s son, PFC John Daniel Hart, was
killed in Iraq at the age of 20.
The founders were alarmed at
the slow rate of fielding robust and cost effective robotic platforms
which save lives of soldiers and innocent civilians. Men shouldn’t be
asked to do a machine’s job. With recent advances in robotics, unmanned
ground vehicles are capable of taking on many of the dirty and
dangerous jobs soldiers and first responders had to risk their lives
doing a few years before.
Black-i has researched and developed
a series of six-wheeled Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGV robots) that are
strong, fast and affordable.
Black-i's UGVs are built with
commercial off the shelf components (COTS) where possible along with
custom build or designed parts where needed. This allows the UGV to be
affordable and repairable using standard tools and inexpensive
replacement parts. Thus, Black-i's UGVs maintains a low MTBR and MTTR.
By design, Black-i's UGVs keep total life cycle costs under control for
end-users.
The UGV applications include:
- SWAT
- Hazmat
- Homeland Security EOD
- Perimeter Security
- Academia Research
-
Dept of Defense (Mission Critical Applications) such as reconnaissance,
engineering and explosive ordinance demolition functions including IED
or VBIED neutralization
The UGV is designed to accept mission
specific modules on a common power train or chassis. We believe UGV
chassis should be thought of as Jeeps which can then be modified for
specific missions. This allows the UGV to perform specific missions in
the above mentioned markets.
The company is rolling out a series of mission modules that will allow the UGV to perform multiple functions in these markets.