Joel Reed, executive director of the Pittsburgh Robotics Network. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop)

PITTSBURGH — Breakthroughs in robotics are generating a new wave of startups and commercial activity in this city, and the impact could be felt throughout the world, if the industry can overcome several key challenges.

One of the biggest changes in Pittsburgh in the four years since GeekWire last visited is a renewed focus on commercializing the robotics research that has been taking place here for decades. A revitalized Pittsburgh Robotics Network is leading the effort, working closely with Carnegie Mellon University and others.

“We’ve always had a very strong R&D and engineering community,” with many key businesses emerging organically from that activity, said Joel Reed, the Pittsburgh Robotics Network’s executive director. The idea now is to get more purposeful, “to fill this commercial gap and connect this community with business markets and business channels.”

Reed identified four key challenges to overcome for broader adoption of robotics.

  • Economics: “We’re all amazed by the videos that you see on YouTube of humanoids, and what robots can do, but they have to be useful, and they have to pay for themselves. And they have to be economically viable and sustainable. We’re continuing to drive costs down on the cost of these units, and coming up with solutions that actually do derive economic value for customers.”
  • Regulations: “Our companies are working to test in a wide variety of locations and geographical areas. And so we need a public-private partnership approach. In places like the Bay Area and Arizona and Texas, they’re a lot more aggressive. Other states, as well, can start participating in this new economy.”
  • Safety: “As we start bringing robots out more broadly with us as humans, safety is really important. So our companies have to be focusing on safety. There’s this whole new segment of our industry called collaborative robots. And that is the key: how do robots interact with humans in a safe way.”
  • Workforce impact: History shows a net positive impact on jobs from automation, but “some people will be displaced. And so we need to address that, and be prepared for it in terms of job training and reskilling. But right now, people are not taking these jobs in warehouses, on construction sites, and in other areas where it’s ‘dull, dirty or dangerous.’ So that’s a big part of it.”

Those will be some of the key issues on the minds of industry leaders gathering this week in Pittsburgh at the Cascadia Connect Robotics, Automation & AI conference. The conference is organized by Seattle-based Cascadia Capital, which is underwriting GeekWire’s independent reporting on the topic.

The commercial potential of robots and automation was evident on an impromptu tour of Pittsburgh’s “Robotics Row” last week, spanning the Strip District and Lawrenceville neighborhoods, led by Reed along with Mark Anthony Thomas, president of the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance.

At every turn, it seemed, there was a new project or company that had popped up since GeekWire’s last visit.

Robotics and automation operations and startups in Pittsburgh, as tracked by the Pittsburgh Robotics Network in its new Robotics Cluster Profile. (Click for larger version.)

There have been 39 capital projects for robotics and autonomy occupants in the past five years in Pittsburgh (plus Uber’s initial autonomous vehicle research center in 2016) totaling more than $275 million in construction costs and 1.7 million square feet of space, according to data compiled by Jeff Burd of Tall Timber Group, a market research and consulting firm in Pittsburgh. That includes 320,000 square feet of new construction.

In its new Robotics Cluster Profile report, the Pittsburgh Robotics Network counts more than 100 companies in what it calls the Pittsburgh Robotics Cluster, up from 80 a year ago. 

Thomas, of the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, said there’s a concerted effort to keep entrepreneurs and engineers from feeling the need to leave for other parts of the country.

“Where the strategy 12 years ago was to take the best of our institutions and put them in other markets, now that’s shifted,” Thomas said. “All the entrepreneurs and creatives now have a place that has been developed for them to stay here. So I think that’s going to change the pipeline of growth.”

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