FAIRMONT -- A new robotics research and development project in north-central West Virginia soon may lead to a local manufacturing opportunity and to future work in robotics.

The project illustrates how the West Virginia High Technology Consortium Foundation seeks projects in which area small businesses can partner.

The project, called the BomBot, originally was developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory to safely and inexpensively detonate improvised explosive devices in war zones, explained foundation Vice President for Research and Development Bradley G. DeRoos.

But as a prototype, he said, it wasn't ready for manufacture.

The High-Tech Foundation, with partners Azimuth Inc. of Morgantown and Aker Kvaerner, along with the Robert C. Byrd Institute, prepared the prototype for manufacture using funding provided by U.S. Rep. Alan B. Mollohan, D-W.Va.

"Azimuth came up with a pan and tilt camera mechanism and an enhanced user interface," DeRoos said, "and the RCBI helped us identify and test manufacturing techniques."

Now ready for production is a low-cost remote control vehicle, DeRoos explained -- in a sense, a high-tech toy truck with a camera and a dump bed.

"It's designed to carry up to five pounds of explosives to a suspect improvised explosive device, drop the explosives off and move away from the explosives so the operator can detonate them," he continued.

In Iraq, DeRoos said, improvised explosive devices have been a big and deadly problem. And while there are robots already in use that allow an operator to detonate them remotely, they're expensive and don't always survive the job.

"They were blowing up $150,000 robots trying to get rid of IEDs," he said. "Here's a solution that costs under $5,000 that does the same job."

The foundation and its partners now are leveraging the initial funding into a competitively awarded contract for manufacturing the BomBot.

The High-Tech Foundation set up a for-profit subsidiary called Innovative Response Technologies Inc. to manage the collaboration. If funding is awarded, IRT will employ four people for contract management, quality assurance and customer interface. The manufacture and assembly -- about 2,800 pieces the first year -- will be outsourced to Aker Kvaerner and Azimuth.

"Our whole goal is to strengthen the capabilities of area businesses," DeRoos said. "The more classical approach to robot manufacturing would be 'we'll do it all.' We're not doing that. It creates challenges, but it creates a lot of excitement and opportunities for people."

DeRoos sees growth in robotics driven by an emphasis in law enforcement and at the Department of Defense in keeping people, where possible, out of harm's way.

"You'll never get the war fighter out of the loop," he said, "but if there are missions that can be done remotely, those things are being heavily looked at by DOD."

While Boston and the northeastern U.S. in general have been a center for robotics expertise, the Pittsburgh area is pursuing the vision of a "robo-corridor" that will include north-central West Virginia, DeRoos said.

"If you look at a robotic vehicle, there are a lot of different technology needs: advanced materials, sensing technologies, command and control technologies, electronics architectures," he said.

The BomBot collaboration is a model for strengthening those capabilities in local companies.

"Azimuth's got a real good focus on electronics and on command and control. (FMW Composites, another foundation partner) has a good focus on advanced materials integration," he said. "As we move forward, we're going to identify different companies that can contribute to different pieces of the puzzle."

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