Honeywell is jumping into robotics — with Pittsburgh as its hub.
The Fortune 100 company is creating Honeywell Robotics, an advanced technology center tasked with developing artificial intelligence, machine learning, computer vision, and advanced robotics for use mainly in warehouses.
Honeywell Robotics will be based at 3 Crossings in the Strip District. The company leased 25,000 square feet of space formerly occupied by Robert Bosch in the development last spring, but did not say why.
In an announcement Thursday, Honeywell said the new robotics center will help to shape the warehouses and distribution centers of the future, with automation plugging labor shortages and improving efficiency.
A spokesperson could not say how many jobs will be created. But Honeywell will be looking for software engineers, robotics designers and others with similar levels of expertise to fill positions.
“We are bringing together some of the brightest minds, partnerships and industry collaborations to create breakthrough technological advancements for customers of all sizes, helping meet the ever-changing demands of consumers,” said Pieter Krynauw, president of Honeywell Intelligrated.
The new advanced technology center of excellence, as it is called, will be headed by Joseph Lui, a robotics leader with expertise in digital data, autonomous technologies and the industrial internet of things. He previously worked for Amazon as director of industrial IoT and automation technologies, robotics.
Honeywell also will be collaborating with AI researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Center to develop robotics technologies for distribution centers.
Based on a DHL study cited by Honeywell, nearly 80% of distribution center operations are still performed manually. Industry growth, however, is outpacing the labor pool by a rate of 6 to 1, according to the company, creating “significant opportunities to automate supply chains.”
Just this week, for example, online retail giant Amazon officially broke ground on a massive new warehouse in Imperial expected to create more than 800 jobs and slated to be up and running by the 2020 holiday shopping season.
“As AI, machine learning and computer vision become commonplace, Honeywell Robotics will create innovative, breakthrough technologies to help customers alleviate skilled labor shortages, reduce safety risks and eliminate inefficient tasks,” Mr. Lui said.
“The use of technology — including advanced warehouse execution systems, 3D storage and sortation solutions to improve capacity and efficiency, and autonomous mobile robots — is just the start of the digital transformation in warehouses.”
Honeywell, a Charlotte, N.C.-based engineering and aerospace firm, will join a host of tech- and AI-oriented companies that have gravitated to the Strip, which is becoming known as Robotics Row.
Others that have established roots include Uber Advanced Technologies Group, Argo AI, Apple, and Bombardier. Facebook has taken all 105,000 square feet in the new four-story District 15 building at 15th and Smallman streets.
Locally, Honeywell operates a voice business supporting its Vocollect product on Rodi Road in Penn Hills.
The company said the establishment of the robotics center is part of a continuing technology transformation carried out in partnership with software vendors, startups, universities, and incubators designed “to create new solutions for industrial customers with both simple and complex needs.”
Mark Belko: mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262.
First Published: October 24, 2019, 2:00 p.m.
Updated: October 24, 2019, 2:20 p.m.
