"When we were designing a robot that could provide this level of assistance, we had to be aware of the pressures and gases that are often found in that environment, " said Sandia engineer Clint Hobart, who was responsible for the mechanicaldesign and system integration.
One of Nektar's earliest hires was Adrian Smith, a mechanicalengineer who had designed ink-jet printers for Hewlett-Packard and medical devices at venerable design firm IDEO.