Foster-Miller

Foster-Miller, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Qinetiq, is an American-based military robotics manufacturer. Its two best-known products are its TALON robots and its LAST Armor.

Founded and based in Waltham, Massachusetts, it has offices in Albany, New York, Washington, D.C., and near Boston. Foster-Miller became a wholly owned Independent subsidiary of Qinetiq in 2004. Its parent has signed a special security agreement, allowing it to work independently in sensitive projects for US defense.

Foster-Miller has about 300 members of staff skilled in aeronautical engineering, administration, chemical engineering, chemistry, physics, civil engineering, electrical engineering, mathematics, statistics, mechanical engineering, metallurgy, polymers, polymerization, electromechanical engineering.

Foster-Miller works in the fields of robotics, advanced materials, sensors, custom machinery, medical device design, biopharmaceuticals, C4ISR and transportation. It has been awarded the aerospace quality management standard AS9100 (6 January 2006) and SW-CMM Level 3 software certification (9 February 2006) and ISO 13485 for medical device design and development.

Mergers/acquisitions

On 8 September 2004 Foster-Miller was acquired by Qinetiq North America for $163 million US dollars. QinetiQ is an offshoot of the UK's DERA, which is Europe's largest science and technology company with a revenue of over $2.2 billion in the 2008 financial year. The acquisition was finalized on 9 November 2004, with Foster-Miller remaining an independent wholly owned subsidiary.

In August, 2005, Qinetiq bought Planning Systems Inc. Planning Systems Inc has some 350 employees with interest in diversified advanced technology.

On 23 April 2007 Foster-Miller announced the acquisition of two Pittsburgh-based robotics companies, Applied Perception Inc. and Automatika Inc. for up to $9.2 million US dollars eac

Automatika provides design, system prototyping, and product manufacturing for robotic systems. Applied Perception creates standardized perception, planning, and control software for UGV, unmanned ground vehicles

History

Foster-Miller associates was founded by MIT graduate students Eugene Foster and Al Miller, but when Miller left MIT and Foster-Miller associates he was replaced by Charles Kojabashian and Edward Nahikian. The trio went on to keep the Foster-Miller Associates name and in 1956 formally opened Foster-Miller Associates in Waltham, Massachusetts.

It is difficult to find information relating to Foster-Miller's earliest years, but its recent performance is well documented and quite extensive. Some of the earliest developments were in jet spray dispensers in vending machines and Velcro/ Raychem (heat-shrink tubing) molding machines. They developed ballistic nets in the 1990s and an overhead/underground power line monitoring system, and underground piping and nuclear steam generator maintenance robots ("guided mole").

*1986: As part of the interagency program between NASA Lewis and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, (ORNL), Foster Millers was involved in the design of the R1000 free-piston Stirling engine hydraulic output system of the unit with assistance from Sunpower Inc., of Athens, Ohio.
*1995: A computer model was created for crash testing rail equipment, this allows the company to recommend ways to improve railroad crash safety through improved designs. A 465 square meter locomotive testing facility was built in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. The facility was full scale and allowed testing of 40,000 pound (18,150 kg/18 ton) locomotives. When computer design/testing is complete and the designs are tested at their Fitchburg facility they are then tested at the Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI) locomotive testing facility at Pueblo, Colorado.
*2001: NASA and Foster-Miller were in the process of creating a model called "integrated advanced dynamic finite element modeling" to improve aircraft seat designs during crashes. The model included the seat, its occupants, restraints, energy-absorbing materials. The model was being tested against existing designs to establish its ability to analyze designs.
*Mid-2003: 20 Foster-Miller TALON robots were brought into Iraq to be used in EOD/IOD roles. In March 2004 Foster-Miller was awarded two more contracts jointly worth around $6,000,000. The contract awarded by the Technical Support Working Group and the Joint Program Office for Robotics increased the number of TALONs in Iraq to 45 and includes providing spare parts. In September 2004 news is released of the creation of a TALON with chemical, gas, temperature, and radiation sensors. The contract was increased further to $27 Million (shipped November 5, 2004) and then on September 19, 2005 to $124 Million to produce 1200+ TALONs in their now multi-dimensional roles.
*2003 September 8: They received a $25 million contract with the Naval Air Systems Command in Lakehurst, New Jersey

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