Robot made by Clinton, TN firm in Oscar film
Wednesday March 10, 2010
Robotec device in opening scenes of "The Hurt Locker"
A Clinton product plays a starring role in the first riveting moments of the movie voted best picture of the year at the Academy Awards.
That's when an HD-1 model robot made by Remotec Inc. is sent to inspect a suspected insurgent booby trap rigged with explosives in Baghdad.
Remotec, which has been in Clinton's Eagle Bend Industrial Park for five years, has received extensive publicity from the movie, which won six Oscars at the 82nd annual Academy Awards.
"It was worth our time from a public relations standpoint," said Mike Knopp, Remotec president.
Remotec loaned the movie producers the robot, and the producers paid expenses for the HD-1 demonstration model and an operator to travel to Jordan, where the movie was filmed, he said.
Remotec's annual sales are between $40 million and $50 million and the company has about 100 employees.
The company now manufacturers five models of robots used mainly to inspect and defuse explosives. Between 200 and 300 robots are made annually, according to Knopp.
The robot filmed in "The Hurt Locker" is one of the company's "smaller, more agile" models, Knopp said, noting that it has returned to its role as a demo.
Knopp said more than 300 of the company's robots have been deployed in Iraq.
Two engineers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory launched Remotec in 1980, and Northrop Grumman acquired the business in 1996.
Source: Knoxville News Sentinel
