Pittsburgh Post Gazette
The recently created Pittsburgh Robotics Network held its first RoboPGH Day, a demonstration day for 20 Pittsburgh-area robotics companies.
Hosted by Carnegie Robotics — a Carnegie Mellon University spinoff that designs robotics systems for clients — the site of the demonstration itself spoke to why the Frontiers Conference was being held in Pittsburgh and not Silicon Valley.
The company’s location in Lawrenceville is in a former steel supply company building that had fallen into disrepair. But after the Regional Industrial Development Corp. renovated the massive building, in 2015 Carnegie Robotics moved there and its quickly expanding workforce continues to take up more and more of the space.
“We have 65 employees now and had 40 when we moved here, and we expect to grow even more quickly,” said Steve DiAntonio, Carnegie Robotics CEO.
The robotics network, which formed earlier this year, says that there are now 40 robotics companies in Pittsburgh with about 2,200 employees. That is twice as many companies and three times as many employees as there were four years ago.
“Southwestern Pennsylvania, which I’m proud to represent, has been and continues to be a leader in the world of robotics,” U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, who co-chairs the House Robotics Caucus, told the gathering. “That’s one of the reasons the president chose Pittsburgh for the Frontiers Conference.”
“Southwestern Pennsylvania, which I’m proud to represent, has been and continues to be a leader in the world of robotics”
— U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle