Mesa Robotics signs deal with Florida firm

Madison-based Mesa Robotics has entered into an agreement that makes it the exclusive supplier of unmanned ground vehicles to Innova Robotics, an Innova Holdings Inc. company in Fort Myers, Fla.

The agreement gives Innova Robotics exclusive worldwide marketing and sales rights to Mesa's full line of vehicles. The announcement was made during the RoboBusiness 2006 Conference and Expo in Pittsburgh this week.

Don Jones, vice president of Mesa Robotics, said the agreement is a strategic alliance. "It opens us up to a market we haven't been in and lets us compete with larger companies that manufacture ground robots,'' Jones said.

Mesa Robotics designs and develops unmanned ground robotic vehicles and payloads that have been in use in Afghanistan, Iraq and Japan. The U.S. customers who have used these products include first responders - sheriffs, police, fire departments, and search-and-rescue - as well as military, homeland security and other commercial applications.

The vehicles are used for reconnaissance, surveillance, counter-explosives operations, material transport, weapons platforms, and humanitarian demining.

The agreement includes existing products as well as any future products that would be supplied exclusively to Innova Robotics.

Innova Holdings provides hardware and software systems-based solutions to the military, service, personal and industrial robotic markets.