Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute
NREC has what it takes to rapidly prototype and develop robotic systems for our sponsors.
Our facility is the world’s most advanced for designing, building and testing mobile robots.
It includes a renovated 100,000 square foot building on a 5.5-acre site, with indoor and outdoor testing areas (plus large, off-site testing grounds), machine and electrical shops, high-bay assembly areas with overhead cranes, and direct access to highway, rail and river transportation. We equip our staff with the latest modeling, simulation and design tools, all integrated within a high performance computing environment.
BAE Systems, Inc.
Caterpillar, Inc.
Consol Energy, Inc.
Continental Automotive Systems
Deere & Company
DARPA
Department of Agriculture
Department of Energy
Ecosphere Technologies
FedEx
Ford Motor Company
General Dynamics Corporation
NASA
National Science Foundation
Northeast Gas Association
Penn State Electro-Optics Center
PsychoGenics, Inc.
RAND Corporation
The Toro Company
US Army
US Marine Corps
US Navy
United States Sugar Corporation
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National Robotics Engineering Center
Ten 40th Street • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15201
412.681.6900 • Fax 412.681.6961 • www.nrec.ri.cmu.edu
E N G I N E E R I N G T H E F U T U R E O F R O B O T I C S

We’re a project-focused, client-driven, combination of full-time roboticists and support staff, merging world class academic research with deep engineering know-how. We solve real-world problems with leading edge robotics technology. Throughout this process, we focus on sponsor requirements, milestones and performance goals. We strive for high impact solutions that lead to new commercial products and capabilities for our sponsors.
STRIKING INNOVATION... We bring together the best minds in robotics to tackle our sponsors’ toughest problems. We brainstorm, prototype and experiment quickly to focus downstream development.
RIGOROUS ENGINEERING... Our engineers and scientists apply tailored systems engineering practices to meet performance, schedule and cost targets. We engineer our systems to support comprehensive operational testing.
FULL SYSTEM INTEGRATION... NREC has the facility, equipment and skilled technicians to assemble and maintain our systems. We lead large integration projects with multiple subcontractors & product suppliers.
EXHAUSTIVE TESTING...
We test early, often and in realistic conditions. We push our systems hard– often to the breaking point– to quickly identify performance and reliability limits that drive the next engineering cycle.
SPONSOR RELATIONSHIPS...
We encourage sponsors to embed engineers within our design teams and participate in field testing.
We demonstrate to our sponsors the state-of-the-practice so they can invest wisely in the future.
TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER...
NREC succeeds when our sponsors integrate our technologies into their product lines and operations.
To support this process, we deliver documentation, training, and flexible license agreements.
From lightweight “throwable” robots to multi-ton autonomous vehicles, NREC delivers never-before-seen mobility and performance.
We offer field-proven expertise in propulsion, hull design, hybrid- electric architectures, sensor integration & vehicle system engineering.
We tackle the most challenging machine vision applications– from building custom sensors for “dirty” environments to developing algorithms for processing highly complex, dynamic, three-dimensional images.
NREC develops the world’s most advanced autonomous vehicles.
From helping the Mars Rover find its way across the Red Planet to autonomously driving a 7-ton vehicle through dense forests, we’re the leader in autonomous vehicles for the military, agriculture & mining.
NREC’s advanced machine learning technologies allow robots to learn from their mistakes and adapt to new conditions. These techniques reduce development time and increase robot performance and resiliency.
NREC fuses active and passive sensing modalities to build rich,
3D models to support autonomous navigation, operator assist and remote mapping applications.
NREC develops special purpose, computer-controlled, electro-mechanical systems that perform critical operations in difficult environments.