Robot's Simplicity Reduces Danger for Military, Police

Throw together an entrepreneurial Englishman-turned-Yank who knows a good idea when he sees one, a group of very intelligent University of Minnesota techno-dweeb students and a market that’s screaming for new gadgets to fight crime and terrorism, and you have the Throwbot.

The Recon Scout Throwbot is the flagship gadget of ReconRobotics, which has been headquartered in Edina since its founding in 2006. The company has emerged as one of the world’s leading designers, manufacturers and marketers of surveillance technology.

The Throwbot is unlike anything being used today. 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 bad guys and/or things may be located.

Technically a robot, it 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.

“I’m not an engineer per se,” says company founder and CEO Alan Bignall.

The affable native of Nottingham, England had previously worked for Rolls Royce and the IDS in the States, primarily as an IT executive. However, when he stumbled across a group of U of M engineering students working on robotics as part of a federal grant, he knew what they had was special.

“I knew when I saw it, it was the perfect product,” Bignall said. “Technically, it is very complicated, yet is simple to use.

“We like to say it is simplicity beyond complexity and that it takes the human user out of much of the fight and danger.”

Today, approximately 1,500 are in use around the world by military units and law enforcement agencies. It now has a pole to which it can be attached and, when necessary, released and activated to do its job. The pole is nice for seeing up and into enclosures or down into holes or sub-basements and crawl spaces, Bignall said.

ReconRobotics recently introduced a version with magnetic wheels that can climb over and into metal structures, such as the hulls of ships.

“Very useful in an age of Somali pirates hijacking ships,” Bignall points out.

Bignall put together $7 million in private investment money in 2006 to launch the company. Today, it employs 29 people and has a manufacturing and assembling operation in Winona. It has sales representatives in 30 countries and Bignall says the Throwbot is a big hit wherever it is demonstrated.

“We were at a recent exposition and trade show in London and someone who was fascinated with the Throwbot was Prince Phillip, who spent quite a bit of time operating it,” he recalled.

ReconRobotics’ team of young technical whizzes is continuing to look at both modifications to existing products as well as new systems and approaches.

Interestingly, the Navy SEALS worked with the company back a few years ago to perfect the infrared capability to the Throwbot’s lens. This, of course, begged the question as to whether they utilized it earlier this summer when they .

“Don’t know,” Bignall said. “They might have, but we will never know, will we?”