Ortiz Robotics is an American engineering and robotics design company, responsible for designing the Descent combat simulation, the Intelligent System Analytic Computer (ISAC), and much of the cutting-edge SHD Tech used by the Strategic Homeland Division and Black Tusk.
Overview[]
Ortiz Robotics primarily consists of husband-and-wife team Alexander and Claire Ortiz. Working in association with DARPA, Ortiz Robotics developed cutting-edge military hardware and artificial intelligence (AI) for both the U.S. government and corporate clients, although Claire Ortiz expressed discomfort at entrusting too much power to the hands of private interests.
History[]
The company's two largest clients were Secretary of Homeland Security Calvin McManus, representing the U.S. Department of Defense, and Natalya Sokolova, CEO of Sokolov Concern and the PMC Black Tusk. Both were primarily interested in procuring AI software--McManus, for NSA surveillance and equipping his newly-minted Strategic Homeland Division, and Sokolova, as guidance systems for her Black Tusk Warhounds. However, neither party favored ANNA, Ortiz Robotic's in-house AI assistant. This led to the creation of two divergent offshoots: ISAC, a simpler, more binary AI package, and DIAMOND, a system without any AI handler interface.
Many of its projects, such as the Turret and Chem Launcher, were of questionable legality and required a private facility for field testing. To this end, McManus granted them use of an underground NSA bunker in Washington, D.C., which would eventually become the Descent Facility. The simulation program was developed almost entirely using funds from Sokolova, under the pretense of building an environment to test her Warhounds in combat against real-life "volunteers". The company also contracted ODEA Tech to procure a stable power solution for the facility's holograms, but only after McManus assured Claire she wouldn't need to work with its CEO, Vikram Malik.
Prior to joining the SHD, Vivian Conley was briefly a contractor for Ortiz Robotics, where she submitted several design proposals based on incendiary munitions. Her proposals were largely rejected for lacking practical utility and ethical concerns, and she was dismissed at the end of her contract. However, Ortiz Robotics maintained the intellectual rights to Conley's work, and several of her ideas were later used without credit, such as the Dragonbreath/Incinerator Turret and Ortiz: Exuro Gear Set.
As a failsafe against The Division's lack of conventional oversight, Ortiz Robotics also helped McManus develop the Hunter protocol, which called upon a cadre of covert operatives trained to eliminate any agents ISAC deemed "rogue".
After the outbreak of Green Poison in New York City, Alexander and Claire Ortiz retreated to an undisclosed bunker, where they continued to monitor the performance of their technology remotely. At the behest of McManus, Claire reprogrammed The Division's Smart Watches to give rogue agents continued functionality and SHD Tech access, as a precautionary margin of error; to compensate, she also authorized the deployment of the first Hunters.