Son's Death In Iraq Drives Father To Build Life-Saving Robot

It's called the LandShark, and the shopping cart-sized robot is a memorial to a young U.S. soldier killed in Iraq whose father is convinced the device can be effective in thwarting at least some of the explosive attacks that are aimed at U.S. forces in that war-torn country.

When Army Pfc. John Hart was killed in a 2003 ambush, his grief-stricken father, Brian Hart, decided to channel his heartache and anger into finding a way to help U.S. troops, who lacked proper armor and other protection.

"He asked me to help him," Brian Hart told The Associated Press, recalling a call he got from his son in Iraq. "Get us body armor and vehicular armor," the son requested.

"He thought he'd be killed on the road and in an unarmored Humvee," the father continued. "And a week to the day later, he was."

The elder Hart's solution was to create Black-I Robotics, a company that develops relatively inexpensive unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) aimed at combating the ever-more-effective and deadly improvised explosive devices that have caused the majority of casualties among U.S. military personnel in Iraq.

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