Pittsburgh Headlines

A study by The Global Institute of Innovation Districts has found that Pittsburgh's Innovation District, which refers to the Oakland neighborhood where Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh are based, is home to 51,705 jobs and is among the top 10 concentrations of R&D spending in the U.S.

Mill 19 in Pittsburgh’s Hazelwood Green neighborhood is now home to the country’s largest single-sloped solar array. Mill 19 is home to a number of technology-focused organizations, including the ARM Institute, Carnegie Mellon University’s Manufacturing Futures Initiative, Catalyst Connection, and Motional (formerly Aptiv). The 110,000 square feet of high-powered panels at Mill 19 will produce more than 2 million kilowatt-hours of electricity each year, according to Donald F. Smith, Jr., president of the RIDC.

The Pittsburgh International Airport, which recently made headlines for being one of the first U.S. airports to leverage robotics (from Carnegie Robotics) for COVID-19 disinfection processes, recently announced a new xBridge innovation centre. The xBridge will contain maker space, an open design studio, and mock-ups of the various parts of an airport, such as concessions and the arrivals area.

PRN Member News

PRN Member Locomation recently used its autonomous trucks to deliver 40,000 pounds of food from the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank to families in Toledo, Ohio. Locomation began collaborating with the Greater Pittsburgh food bank after helping the organization meet the demand for increased food distributions when the COVID-19 crisis began.

NASA  has awarded Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic a $5.8 million contract to work with Bosch USA, University of Washington, and WiBotic Inc on a solution for wireless charging for lunar robots. Astrobotic recently expanded their presence in Pittsburgh with a new 47,000 sq. ft. facility.

RE2 Robotics has received $1.1M in funding from the U.S. Army to develop a mobile robotic manipulation system that will allow combat medics to remotely assess and extract injured soldiers on the battlefield.

Agility Robotics has announced the close of a $20 million investment. The investment will enable the company to meet the demand from logistics providers, e-commerce retailers and others for robots that can work alongside humans to automate repetitive, physically demanding or dangerous work safely and scalably, even in the majority of spaces that are not purpose-built for automation.

Industry News

The International Federation of Robotics recently reported that the sales value of professional service robots increased by 32% to 11.2 billion USD worldwide (2018-2019), with the pandemic expected to continue to drive this growth.

Pittsburgh Robotics Network News

The Pittsburgh Robotics Network (PRN) had a full fall collaborating with a number of sponsors and partners to solve challenges facing our regional robotics companies, including informative topic-focused webinars, virtual international speaking efforts to bring attention to our region’s leadership in the robotics industry, and efforts to connect job seekers with hiring organizations. Have an idea for collaboration in 2021? Email us at info@robopgh.org to learn about sponsorship opportunities.