Humanistic Robotics is a company that develops land mine–clearing technology. It is developing the SCAMP- Specialized Compact Automated Manual deminer replacement Platform. This technology uses remote robotics as a platform for surveying, clearing and checking the quality of clearance in minefields, while solving a number of issues not addressed by landmine clearing technologies.
The company was started in 2005 by two students: Samuel Reeves, an undergraduate business student at Wharton; and Joshua Koplin, a graduate design student at the Pratt Institute. After receiving a grant from a foundation in Geneva, the two partners conducted research in Bosnia, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Thailand and Canada to better understand the landmine clearing technologies in use.
Upon their return, they looked for an alternative solution to landmine clearance. Issues that were identified in current landmine clearing machines were high cost (reducing the volume of machines that can be financed), weight (transportation costs and damage caused to rural infrastructure), and ease of use. After creating a design that purportedly accounted for all of these problems, they decided to create Humanistic Robotics Inc. Its land mine–clearing robot is approaching the final test phase, and the company will be looking to produce their new robot en masse within the next few years.
The board is composed of Michael Douglas, Ian McMillan, Iqbal Quadir, Jonathan Granoff and Steve Goodman.[1][2][3]