We've had several tragedies recently where you could argue that firefighters have needlessly died, since they weren't even sure there were people in the buildings. They're brave, and that's their job, but our thought is, 'Hey let's send in the robots.'"

- DANIEL THEOBALD, president of Vecna Technologies Inc. of College Park, which received $1.1 million in federal money to develop its Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot for military duty: handling hazardous materials and performing search and rescue