Even when robotics technologies were relatively primitive, their potential role in boosting the productivity and competitiveness of the United States was foreseen in the evolving global marketplace.

The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University was established in 1979 to conduct basic and applied research in robotics technologies relevant to industrial and societal tasks. Seeking to combine the practical and the theoretical, the Robotics Institute has diversified its efforts and approaches to robotics science while retaining its original goal of realizing the potential of the robotics field. The facility includes approximately 100,000 square feet at the main Pittsburgh campus, another 100,000 square feet at the National Robotics Engineering Center in Lawrenceville and growing.