Pittsburgh as the New Silicon Valley

As the managing director of the Robotics Hub in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Chris Moehle facilitates the introduction of new business ventures to the local economy. The contributions of Chris Moehle and other leaders have attracted startups and other investment opportunities in technology to the area. This has the city positioning itself as the new Silicon Valley.

The notion is not too far-fetched. The Pittsburgh area has a number of robotics facilities. Carnegie Mellon University, the Robotics Institute, and the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) are just a few area organizations that are actively involved in robotics technology.

The Robotics Hub is just one example of the way in which the city has become host to organizations devoted to supporting the city’s thriving tech industry, whether through actual funding or providing programs to assist startups.

The difference between California’s Silicon Valley and Pittsburgh is the latter’s affordable cost of living. Boosters say the city quite possibly could take over the role of technology center of the country.

The Robotics Hub and Pittsburgh Startups

Oregon State’s Use of Bird Models in Robotics

Chris Moehle leads Pittsburgh’s The Robotics Hub and guides a fund dedicated to enabling next-generation robotics advancements. Among the portfolio companies funded through Chris Moehle’s organization is Agility Robotics, which is in the process of creating legged robots that have perception sensors and a pair of arms built in.

Before it was a company, Agility was a creation of the Dynamic Robotics Laboratory at Oregon State University (OSU). Led by Jonathan Hurst, who is now Agility Robotics’ Chief Technology Officer, the Dynamic Robotics Lab worked with a number of national and international collaborators in understanding the mechanical basis of effective movement. This collaborator list includes the Royal Veterinary College of the University of London. Together, OSU and the Royal College observed the mechanics of birds walking and running within laboratory and field settings. A central focus is on how these “feathered machines” are able to efficiently and nimbly travel between two points with relatively little “central processing”.

One experiment had a guinea fowl run down a track that contained a pothole half a leg deep (which it was unaware of), covered by tissue paper. Without the bird’s brain having time to sense or react, the leg itself adjusted to the drop at the moment it encountered it. A key insight was that designing a robotic leg and later programming it to move effectively is a backwards way of going about the design, as effective dynamics should – and almost must – be built into the robot’s core mechanical structure.

This is important to consider both when the robot is moving, and when it is not. By being mindful of the passive and active dynamics of the machine, software controls become simpler and more approachable. As a result, you get robots that are more robust and controllable in uncertain real-world circumstances. As a nod to this insight from our avian friends, and the resulting core design principles for robots, Agility named their first robot “Cassie” – an affectionate abbreviation of New Guinea’s flightless cassowary.

Agility Robotics’ Next-Generation Legged Robots with Arms and Sensors

Agility Robotics
Image: AgilityRobotics.com

Guiding The Robotics Hub in Pittsburgh as Managing Director, Chris Moehle leads a pioneering fund that seeks out growing companies focused on the area of emerging robotics. Among the companies funded by Chris Moehle’s firm is Agility Robotics, which builds on existing technologies that allow advanced humanoid robots to walk, climb, slog, and jump.

A major issue is that legged robots—even those developed by leading companies such as Boston Dynamics—are still unable to match the robustness and efficiency of animal and human movement. With this in mind, researchers at Dynamic Robotics Laboratory and Oregon State University focused on better understanding legged locomotion principles and applying the findings to robotics. As a result, the bipedal robot Cassie was launched in 2017 and sold to a number of research groups.

The forthcoming Digit robot builds on Cassie with a similar leg structure, but with the addition of arms and perception sensors that will initially be used to increase stability, and ultimately to enhance manipulation capacities. The result aims to be the first robot capable of thriving in real-world environments built for humans. Working collaboratively with humans, Digit promises to help reduce injury, damage, and accidents. Ultimately, this creates a better environment and economy for man and machine alike.