As it pushes forward with a 150,000-square-foot project expected to cost $90 million and open in the summer of 2025, Carnegie Mellon University is fine-tuning its proposal for a Robotics Innovation Center, with the goal of creating a hub for researchers and tinkerers with robotic projects of all kinds.
The university presented plans for the RIC to the Pittsburgh Planning Commission on Tuesday.
"It really is intended to be space where robotics research is intended to be done, especially robotics research that won’t be seen on campus," said Bob Reppe, senior director for planning and design at CMU.
Reppe expressed the possibility of a robotic invasion from land, air and water, with flying machines as well as potentially swimming machines and space allocated for agricultural use.
The university and its design team, led by Jennifer Askey of the Pittsburgh office of Perkins Eastman, have sharpened their approach to a project first presented in a Hazelwood community meeting in April with a design featuring two separate "pants legs" and conscious attention to a high-bay interior that flows out into what Reppe called a "running room" of an exterior testing yard.
"It’s really integral to the design of the building and the site," Reppe said.
One of the "pant legs" of the new structure will be established as a drone cage, a screen-matted structure in which to test drone robots.
Reppe also said there will need to be a robotic wheel wash for robotics brought inside from the field that need to be cleaned.
CMU is pushing forward with these design components after the Pittsburgh Zoning Board of Adjustments approved a minor revision in the preliminary land development plan for the site, combining what were three parcels into one larger one.
The site for the new project faces onto a public plaza that is next to Mill 19.
It's a project very different from what CMU typically has on its Oakland campus, where space is at a premium and such uses are hard to fit in.
"This is not intended to be a traditional classroom building," Askey said. "We’ve designed the building and its exterior to carry on this research."
