Community Corner
Edina 'Throwbot' Helps SWAT Team Investigate Gun Shots
Edina-based ReconRobotics' Throwbot is used by more than 1,500 military units and law enforcement agencies across the world.
When police responded to a report of shots fired Saturday in Eden Prairie, they received a tactical assist from a high-tech robot manufactured by an innovative Edina company.
Eden Prairie police rolled out a camera-equipped robot into one of the units of Eden Place Apartments, where a man and a woman were shot to death.
The Recon Scout Throwbot is the flagship gadget of ReconRobotics, which has been headquartered in Edina since its founding in 2006.
About the size and configuration of a five-pound dumbbell—but weighing only 1.2 poiunds—it is manually “thrown” into an area where law enforcement or military personnel suspect are wary to enter.
The device is operated by a remote hand-held device that has a joystick for controlling direction and speed as well as a screen, which shows what the Throwbot is seeing at all times.
The company's founder, Alan Bignall, told Patch in 2011 that when he stumbled across a group of U of M engineering students working on the robot, he knew it was "the perfect product."“Technically, it is very complicated, yet is simple to use," he said. “We like to say it is simplicity beyond complexity and that it takes the human user out of much of the fight and danger.”
Retailing for $13,000, the Throwbot is in operation by more than 1,500 military units and law enforcement agencies across the world.
With reporting by Mike Wilkinson.
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