National business publication Fast Company named Pittsburgh-based Seegrid Corp. as one of the world's most innovative companies, ranking the Pittsburgh-maker of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) found in warehouses across the country as the No. 4 on its list titled "Most Innovative Robotics Company in the World."
For its ranking justification, Fast Company specifically called attention to Seegrid for its "rent-a-robot-business model" for other companies. Seegrid bills itself as being able to "deliver complete, connected material handling automation solutions" to its customers, who rank among the planet's largest manufacturing, e-commerce and logistics firms.
“I am incredibly proud of Seegrid’s collective ability to solve complex material handling challenges,” Jim Rock, Seegrid CEO, said in a company press release. “We’re committed to delivering mobile automation solutions that safely bring transformational change to the world’s supply chain.”
The company's autonomy technology, named Seegrid IQ, is able to compile data captured from the cameras and LiDAR equipment that are placed on its AMRs, lifts, pallet trucks and tow tractors with and machine learning models, all of which is then fed into its proprietary 3D computer vision system. That system then allows Seegrid's various warehouse-related transporting equipment to perform tasks autonomously.
Fast Company's ranking of Seegrid is just the latest high-profile praise for the company, which calls the RIDC Park West in the Robinson Township-area home. In October 2021, international market research firm Interact Analysis ranked Seegrid as No. 1 in the U.S. in two different categories as part of the firm's 2021 Mobile Robot report; ranking it the No. 1 AMR provider in the country and found that it is also No. 1 in market share worldwide for automated tow tractors — a type of automated or automatic guided vehicle (AGV) robot that pulls and transports goods through warehouses or other similar settings.
Hans Moravec, who serves as the company's chief roboticist, founded Seegrid in 2003.
Fast Company's full list of its Wold's Most Innovative Companies rankings can be found here. Its robotics break out of the list can be found here.
