Recon Robots, Where Recon Is Short for Reconnaissance

choi

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Joe Barrett, Friends Made in Low Places; New Robot Line, More Useful Than
Predecessors, Are Being Adopted by Swat Teams. Wall Street Journal, Oct. 18,
2010.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304250404575558441833253562.html

My comment:
(a) The title of the report, Friends Made in Low Places, is a play on the
phrase: have/make friends in high places.

"have friends in high places[:]
to know important people who can help you get what you want"
Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/have-friends-in-high-places
(b) Guglielmi is Italian equivalent of Williams, where Guglielmo is William.
(c) ReconRobotics Inc.
http://www.reconrobotics.com/
(About Us: "The company was formed in 2006 to commercialize robotics
technology developed at the University of Minnesota Distributed Robotics
Laboratory under funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA) and the National Science Foundation, among others.")

(i) Please click PRODUCTS in top horizontal bar, and select "Videos" for
Recon Scout XT (which I chose for its odd feet).

Still, I doubt products of the company can climb up or down stairs.

(ii) The company is based at Edina, Minnesota.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edina,_Minnesota
(situated immediately southwest of Minneapolis; section 3.2 Naming: After
Edina Mill: upon [Andrew Craik's] moving to the township in 1869 from
Edinburgh, he bought and renamed the mill to the Edina Mill)


---------------------------Separately
Nicolas von Kospoth, Taiwan Goes Its Own Way in UAV Development. Defence
Professionals, Oct. 15, 2010.
http://www.defpro.com/daily/details/672/
("a [Taiwan] defence official announced that the island country did not
select the US-built RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned surveillance aircraft system,
but will, rather, have its military-run Chung-Shan Institute of Science and
Technology develop an indigenous UAV")

My comment:
(a) This report is in-depth, in comparison with other news reports in this
issue, such as

Taiwan: developing unmanned military aircraft. AFP, Oct. 12, 2010.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101012/wl_asia_afp/taiwanchinapoliticsmilitaryus_20101012072235

(b) It is known for years that Taiwan has tried to developed UAVs. Taiwan's
strong suit is electronics, so it should at least try. About a year ago,
though, it was reported that Taiwan bought five key technologies from a
nation Taiwan defense official refused to name.



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