First Response Robotics, based in the Greater Cincinnati suburb of Amelia, makes a robot designed to be used in dangerous situations by police and hazardous waste specialists. One of the company's first public looks was at University of Cincinnati's Tech Expo in 2005, where founder and president Mike Cardarelli, then a mechanical engineering technology senior at UC displayed the robot, known as HERO, Hazardous Environment Robot Observer. Cardarelli will be back at
Tech Expo 2008, to be held Thursday, May 22 at Duke Energy Center downtown, displaying improvements to the robot that were designed with the help of UC engineereing students.
"Students showing work in this year’s Tech Expo are designing and manufacturing an arm for my robot that will make the device a lot more valuable for current clients as well as broaden my potential business base,” Cardarelli says. That's the kind of practical, applied technology the Expo will showcase -- about 150 projects in all, including an at-home paper recycling machine sponsored by International Paper, a chemical test to determine the best food flavors possible for products, sponsored by Cargill Flavor System of Cincinnati, and a study of bio-enzymatic floor cleaners sponsored by Procter & Gamble Co.
Writer: David Holthaus
Source: M.B. Reilly, University of Cincinnati
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