Last week's Army order for 1,100 Recon Scout XT robots is worth $13.9 million, the biggest in the history of fast-growing ReconRobotics.

The 1.2-pound "throwbots" are small, durable, mobile, camera-equipped and are used as "eyes" by U.S. and allied forces. The devices can be tossed into buildings and around corners, enabling troops to see ahead of them. Hundreds also have been sold to police agencies and building-security firms.

CEO Alan Bignall said the Edina-based company, which has briskly grown revenue over the last three years, has increased employment by 20, to 48, over the last year and supports another 50 through Minnesota-based suppliers and contract manufacturers.

Over the last six months, ReconRobotics has received U.S. military orders for 1,800 Recon Scout XT kits. More than 350 law enforcement agencies worldwide rely on Recon Scout robots to do reconnaissance during high-risk tactical operations. The Scout can be deployed in a few seconds and thrown up to 120 feet, runs quietly, is tough to spot and is equipped with a night-stalking, infrared optical system.

The University of Minnesota, which first developed the technology at its robotics lab, is a "significant minority shareholder" in the privately held company that was capitalized with several million dollars by Bignall and other investors.

ReconRobotics also is a driver in the "Robotics Alley" initiative, whose members manufacture products ranging from robotics to unmanned aircraft that may one day survey and spray farm fields, as well as fire missiles. ReconRobotics also is part of very preliminary discussions with private and public entities to establish robotics laboratories and a related-business incubator that could occupy part of the abandoned Ford truck plant in St. Paul.

Dml -, Star Tribune
Mike Rothman

SHORT TAKES

•The Minnesota Department of Commerce is taking a higher profile under Gov. Mark Dayton and Commissioner Mike Rothman. The department took 488 enforcement actions against realty agents, securities firms, mortgage brokers, bankers and others it accused of violating the law in 2011, compared with 531 in 2010, a bigger number, under Commissioner Glenn Wilson. Regardless, Commerce is making a lot more noise. Wilson, a former mortgage banker, was less visible under Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Rothman, a commercial lawyer who spent the last 15 years representing insurance and securities firms, is typical of Democratic commissioners who tend to put more stock in the deterrent effect of publicity. Under Rothman, Commerce levied civil penalties of $7.1 million in 2011 compared with $4.8 million the previous year under Wilson. Just last week Rothman issued consent orders against travel insurers and a large debt-collection firm.

•U.S. Bank will loan the funds to help "Gilda's Club" open its first Twin Cities-area cancer support center in Minnetonka. The centers offer education, social activities, networking and other services for patients and their families . Gilda's Club Twin Cities, which has quietly raised nearly half the $3 million it plans for the project, will announce its plans on Monday. Gilda's Club-- named for "Saturday Night Live" comedian Gilda Radner, who died of cancer in 1989 -- opened its first club in New York in 1995. More than 50 have been built in North America. More information at: www.gildasclubtwincities.org.

•International Dairy Queen, part of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, has opened its 500th location in China and plans to open more than 100 more this year. China has been the strongest international market for the Minnesota-based treat peddler. It opened its first store in Beijing in 1991.

WHITEBOX LAUNCHES MUTUAL FUNDS

Whitebox Advisors, which did well with a hedge fund that bet against the mortgage market before the housing bubble burst in 2008, has launched a couple of mutual funds.

Whitebox is led by quantitative-analysis guru Andy Redleaf, who was hailed as a sharp contrarian when he bet against many financial institutions in 2006-07 at the height of the mortgage and derivatives-securities boom that led to a federal rescue of the country's financial Titanics.

Whitebox, which announced the funds at a recent reception at the Minikahda Club, had its own liquidity problems amid the credit crunch of 2008-09. Lenders demanded more collateral, and spooked clients demanded their money. Whitebox survived to launch "tactical opportunities" and "enhanced convertible" funds. These are far from plain-vanilla indexed funds and may invest in a cornucopia of asset classes, credit default swaps, options and future contracts, junk bonds, etc.

Whitebox was an investor with Tom Petters in Sun Country Airlines a couple of years before the Petters empire was exposed as a $6.5 billion fraud.

Petters, now residing in federal prison in Leavenworth, Kan., will be profiled on Wednesday on CNBC's "American Greed" program. The episode's title: "Tom Petters: Generous With Other People's Money."