Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/inspired-by-soldier-son-father-develops-military-robots Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript After the death of his son in the Iraq war, the father of a soldier formed a company that manufactures military robots. Tom Bearden reports. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JIM LEHRER: Now, using technology to save lives on the battlefield. NewsHour correspondent Tom Bearden has our Science Unit story. TOM BEARDEN, NewsHour Correspondent: In a garage outside of Bedford, Massachusetts, two men from Black-I Robotics work on putting together what looks like a large Tonka Truck.But this is no toy: It's Brian Hart's version of a robot for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.Hart, an engineer and former executive of several telecommunication companies, and his brother, Richard, are developing low-cost modular ground robots with one thing in mind: saving lives.His son, John, who had been deployed to Iraq, was his inspiration.BRIAN HART, CEO and Founder, Black-I Robotics: So, you know, in 2003, my son calls me — and a week before he was killed — and says that they're being ambushed on roads, they don't have any armor on their vehicles, and he just wanted to let me know that, if we could get anything for them, it would save lives. The next call we get was the military at our door at 6 a.m. telling us he was dead.