A Salt Lake City, Utah-based technology firm that established an outpost in Pittsburgh following the $100 million acquisition of a local robotics firm announced a companywide pivot on Tuesday that will lead to the ending of its presence in the region.
Sarcos Technology and Robotics Corp., which purchased Lawrenceville-based robotics company RE2 Inc. back in April 2022, said in a press release that it will be pivoting its business operations to focus on the "larger, near-term opportunity" of its robotics-based artificial intelligence and machine learning software platform.
"After continued extensive analysis of our business that led to a deeper understanding of the risks and work necessary to bring our robotic systems to market, we determined that our AI software platform offers the greatest risk-adjusted revenue opportunity for the company in the near- and mid-term," Laura Peterson, president and CEO of Sarcos, said in the release.
As a result, the company said it would be closing its Pittsburgh location and that about 150 employees would be laid off in the next 60 days as it looks to consolidate its workforce in Salt Lake City. The company did not disclose how many of those 150 people were based in Pittsburgh, though it had previously noted the ending of its manufacturing operations here several weeks ago.
The business pivot comes a few months after Chief Operating Officer Jorgen Pedersen left the company, which he joined following the acquisition of RE2. Pedersen founded RE2 over two decades ago, which saw it become one of Pittsburgh's most acclaimed robotics companies, launching the firm well before the robotics boom that has come to fruition over the years.
RE2 developed autonomous and teleoperated mobile robotic systems for various industries. Its signature product, the Sapien Sea Class system, performed inspection and maintenance tasks across these different industries in shallow and deepwater environments. Similarly, Sarcos' mobile robotic systems are designed to augment human performance and can perform tasks where physically demanding work is required, much like RE2's products.
