If you’re focused on cars, you might miss Pittsburgh’s autonomous vehicle revolution
Over the past year, it seems like every major news organization from TechCrunch and Wired to the New York Times and NPR have covered Pittsburgh’s growing role in the autonomous car industry. And for good reason: self-driving cars represent a massive market opportunity that will reshape the way we travel while potentially saving millions of lives in the process. Pittsburgh now boasts offices of key self-driving car companies like Uber, Argo AI, Ford, Delphi and Aurora Innovation. Yet while autonomous cars have received the lion’s share of the press, our region is poised to play a key role in the impact autonomous vehicles can play in transforming other industries, like manufacturing, healthcare, defense and agriculture.
During recent years, Pittsburgh has quietly nurtured a number of companies that are developing autonomous vehicles for a variety of large and disruptive market opportunities. And while we’re less likely to run into these products on our drive from the North Shore to East Liberty, they also represent huge opportunities that you might miss if you’re only paying attention to the autonomous cars driving down the roads in our region. Here’s a handful of the exciting opportunities local entrepreneurs are pursuing.
Aethon is a leader in delivery automation and tracking solutions. Their TUG robots are used to make over 5 million deliveries per year in more than 140 major hospitals in the U.S. They also have a growing number of users of TUGs in industrial market applications. After raising venture financing from some of the nation’s top VCs, Aethon was recently acquired by ST Engineering, a $6+ billion global tech giant.
Bossa Nova Robotics is developing mobile robots to analyze the stock and location of products in retail stores to provide improved inventory, workflow and data solutions to some of the world’s biggest retailers.
Carnegie Robotics secured a $23 million contract to develop the Autonomous Mine Detection System (AMDS) for the U.S. military and is busy developing autonomous navigation systems the agriculture, mining and energy industries to name a few.
Gecko Robotics is a leading provider of inspection robots that can be used for a variety of industrial applications. Their solutions improve the efficiency, reliability and safety of plant operations.
IAM Robotics’ piece-picking robots work around the clock in warehouses at unparalleled speed, reliability and accuracy. The company was chosen as one of the top 50 companies to watch by Robotics Business Review.
Identified Technologies’ autonomous drones are helping construction and excavation companies like EQT, PJ Dick and Vulcan track and analyze job site data with greater productivity and accuracy.
Near Earth Autonomy provides autonomous aircraft navigation, data acquisition and analysis solutions for for a variety of industrial and defense-related applications.
re2 Robotics develops mobile robotics technologies that enable mobile robots to interact with the world around them, whether on the ground, in the air or under water. Here’s one of many cool videos of re2 robots in action —
Redzone Robotics have deployed their mobile robots to inspect water and sewer infrastructure in municipalities around the world — saving time, money and the environment.
SeeGrid is providing vision guided vehicles (VGVs) for a variety of materials handling applications for such partners as GE, Whirlpool, Boeing, and Amazon.
Skycision develops aerial inspection and mapping solutions for agricultural markets. Their solutions can identify crop issues on a timely basis to improve crop yield and dramatically improve the bottom line for farmers.
I hope this post gives you a broader view into the potential opportunities our region’s innovators are pursuing thanks to our strengths in artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics. Autonomous systems are a platform technology poised to disrupt a number of large industries in addition to self-driving cars. The team at Innovation Works, which was named the most active U.S. investor in robotics companies from 2011–2016 by CBInsights, is proud to have supported many of these companies. The next time you see an autonomous vehicle on one of our local roads, think about what that same enabling technology could do in a factory, warehouse or hospital.
By Rich Lunak
President and CEO, Innovation Works &
Managing Director, Riverfront Ventures
