Anikanov Labs

Anikanov Labs is a California-based company primarily based around the production of robots.

History
It was an American company founded in the 1940s for weapons manufacture during the second World War. Originally known as Janus Electronics (stylized as JanEl), named after the Roman god of beginnings and ends, it produced high-tech weaponry and automated 'mechanical men' to do the dirty work of war and keep humans out of the mix. After wartime they still produced weapons but moved their focus to making robots for other purposes, like using them for testing human durability in rockets during the Space Race.

The company was looking for a new person to lead and at the same time one of the people under him, a Russian spy watching the weapons operations of the company, was looking to rise in the ranks to access more classified files and get more intel on the government operations the company was involved with. This person was Leonid Lepyokhin and later, his son Mikhail. Through some somewhat sketchy dealings he became the next head of the company, using it to fulfil his purpose as a Soviet double-agent with his connections to his home. He provided the American government with falsified information about Soviet operations while giving his higher-ups information on the American military and defenses.

Their most prolific series, the MRM series, originally started as warbots but later switched to machines of rescue. Rumors around the company say that the warbots were intended for another purpose besides simply being American military supplements, though. Mikhail knew the details of the project better than anyone, but with his later turning of the company to his son the truth was concealed. During this time, the units MRM-10 through MRM-17 were used for the Reclamation Project.

In the late 80s Mikhail's actions came to light and he was imprisoned. His wife, Irena Anikanov, became leader of the company in 1992, and changed the name to Anikanov Labs to try and distinguish it from its controversial past. When she passed a few years later her son Pavel was allowed to keep the company as long as they shifted away from weapons manufacturing. Under Pavel's leadership he tried to switch over to using matter to power bots rather than nuclear or batteries like the bots of before but he had little success. This led to his partnership with Walter Robotics and meeting Hiram Sprint. Anikanov Labs' first project with Walter Robotics was on MRM-19, or Lav, and his failure almost ended the company again. The government was under the impression that Lav could be classified as a weapon, thus violating the contracts that Pavel had signed in order to keep the company open. Of course, with the next project in the partnership's proven success the government was convinced to turn a blind eye to Lav as long as MRM-20 was able to compensate and couldn't go rogue.

Products

 * Stella
 * MARA line
 * Warbot MRM line (discontinued), including Cinnamon
 * Reclamation Project MRMs, including MRM-15, MRM-16, and MRM-17
 * Rescue MRM line, including Hiram and Lav