The Robotics Factory has officially opened its doors along Pittsburgh's Robotics Row and its launch is the latest result of the $62.7 million federal grant the region won in September 2022 to spur local robotics-based and robotics-adjacent industry.
About 300 people consisting of local, state and federal officials as well as business executives, investors and other stakeholders attended the Thursday evening event that formally marked the latest start on a five-part endeavor from the Build Back Better Regional Challenge grant award from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, which will continue to fund various investments throughout the 11-county region over the next few years.
At least $12 million of that grant award has been put forward for the Robotics Factory, a facility that spans about 18,000 square feet of space inside the Regional Industrial Development Corporation of Southwestern Pennsylvania's Tech Forge facility on 47th Street in Lawrenceville.
Innovation Works Inc., one of the region's most prolific seed-stage investment firms, is overseeing the management of the Robotics Factory, which also now shares space with IW's software-focused startup accelerator AlphaLab and its hardware-focused equivalent AlphaLab Gear.
Last June, the Robotics Factory announced the six Pittsburgh-area startups it selected for its inaugural robotics-based accelerator cohort program, an effort aimed at turning these early ventures into sustainable enterprises. All six preseed firms are eligible to receive up to $100,000 in funding. These startups also have access to co-working space, mentorship and strategic resources to help grow company operations during the seven-month program, itself part of the "Accelerate" element of the Robotics Factory's three-pronged mandate, with the other two being "Create" and "Scale."
Ven Raju, CEO of IW, said the culmination of work in local robotics development that goes back nearly half a century has helped escalate the formation of the Robotics Factory so that more ideas can be thought of and turned into standalone businesses.
And if the broader region plays its cards right and helps support efforts like these, robotics — and tech more broadly — could even replace the often-touted image of Pittsburgh's heavy industrial past.
"Over the course of the last four decades, the region's robotics cluster has been at the forefront of Pittsburgh's transformation from an industrial powerhouse to now a technology hub," Raju said. "Today, the robotics cluster employs over 7,000 people in the region with high-paying jobs, which is a 300% increase over the course of the last 10 years."
Matthew Johnson-Roberson, director of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, echoed Raju's sentiment and cited his belief that Pittsburgh is the place to have these types of developments.
"A lot of the work that's been done here in Pittsburgh over the years has really set the groundwork for where robotics is heading and where it's going now," Johnson-Roberson said. "I firmly believe that Pittsburgh is going to be at the front of everything that is happening in robotics and AI for the next century."
Johnson-Roberson continued: "I think this is the time to be in robotics. This is the place to be in robotics. This is the city to be in robotics and this is the community to be a part of it."
Jennifer Apicella, interim executive director of the Pittsburgh Robotics Network, a nonprofit robotics advocacy and business group, also doubled down on the region's established robotics strengths as justification for a bullish robotics future. The PRN has over 120 local robotics companies in its membership ranks, a figure that has continued to grow over the years.
"I can honestly say that no other region can touch us," Apicella said. "No other region can do what we are doing."
But getting that message beyond the borders of western Pennsylvania is critical if Pittsburgh is going to play a larger role in global robotics developments, Apicella said.
"This is our opportunity to shine and be proud of that," Apicella said. "We hear a lot of people refer to Pittsburgh as, 'oh, they're hardworking, hands down, very humble.' Enough of that, okay. It's time to let everyone know what's happening here so that this isn't the best kept secret of our region. This is what's being talked about, and it's old hat. Of course, it's Pittsburgh. Of course, it's Pittsburgh robotics, and I think we're well on the way and we're seeing that happening."
Kevin Dowling, interim lead of the Robotics Factory, said the onus of this success lies heavily on those in attendance at the event launch to spread this message far and wide.
"I would say the most important thing is not what we do in this building, it's what you do for the robotics industry here in Pittsburgh," Dowling said. "You are all stakeholders in this and if you can provide advice, if you can provide connections, if you can provide interesting information that might lead to a deal of some kind, that is with a value here. And so you're all responsible, I'm going to make you responsible for this while we continue to build companies, accelerate companies and scale companies. That's what we do. And the Robotics Factory, just to put a fine a point on it: We don't build robots, we build robot companies and that's what we will continue to do."
