Foster Miller, Inc., the country's largest maker of robots for the military based in Waltham, Mass., announced Monday the purchase of two Pittsburgh robotics companies, Automatika, Inc., and Applied Perception, Inc. for $9.2 million each, pending government authorization of the sale.
Both companies are Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) spin-outs. Automatika in O’Hara Township was founded by Hagen Schempf, a principal systems scientist in the Robotics Institute; Applied Perceptions in Cranberry is lead by Todd Jochem, a Robotics Institute grad.
"Carnegie Mellon spin-outs are attracting the interest of some of the best companies in the world,” says Jared L. Cohon, president of CMU. This a testament to how important it is to have a vigorous community of start ups in Pittsburgh and how that vigor can translate into new partnerships and the prospect of new jobs. More opportunities for developing robotics and technology related companies will follow from this for the Pittsburgh region.”
Foster-Miller is a subsidiary of QinetiQ North America. Both robotics companies are tremendous technologies that will benefit from collaboration with Foster-Miller as it continues its development of the next generation of robotics for military, industrial, and energy markets, says Dr. William Ribich, president and CEO of Foster-Miller.
Both companies plan to stay in Pittsburgh. Automatika provides invention, design, system prototyping, and product manufacturing for a wide variety of automated and robotic systems used in military and civil defense, oil, and gas exploration, remediation and utilities inspection. Applied Perception creates standardized perception, planning, and control software and development tools to support the navigation of
unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs).
Source: Byron Spice, CMU