Impossible Metals Inc. said Wednesday it plans to open an Advanced Marine Robotics Hub in Pittsburgh, where the manufacturing company will develop autonomous underwater technology aimed at collecting critical minerals from the ocean floor.
“Pennsylvania built the Arsenal of Democracy, and Pittsburgh is building what comes next,” said Steve Curnutte, executive chairman of Impossible Metals, during the Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit, a two-day event that ended July 15 in Carlisle, Pa. “Impossible Metals is bringing its most ambitious engineering to the city that invented modern robotics.”
The San Jose, Calif.-based Impossible Metals said the new Pittsburgh facility will initially create more than a dozen high-paying engineering and science jobs in Pennsylvania, with additional hiring expected as operations expand.
“The mission is straightforward: make America the leader in the autonomous marine and ocean-science systems that will secure the critical minerals that China currently controls,” Curnutte said. “That work starts in Pittsburgh, and the next generation of American engineers will build it with us.”
The company said it chose Pittsburgh because of its established robotics industry and research community. According to Impossible Metals, the region is home to more than 140 robotics companies and has become a growing center for defense autonomy and artificial intelligence.
The company plans to recruit engineers and researchers locally while collaborating with universities, faculty, and students.
Impossible Metals develops autonomous underwater systems designed for ocean exploration and mineral collection. Its Pittsburgh hub will support work on ocean science, naval technologies and systems for recovering critical minerals. The effort builds on the company’s Eureka autonomous underwater platform and its Smart Launch and Recovery Systems.
The Eureka system is designed to collect nickel, cobalt, copper, and manganese from polymetallic nodules on the seafloor, said the company, noting that those minerals are used in batteries, munitions, and defense technologies.
“On the ocean floor lie potato-sized rocks called polymetallic nodules, and they hold the critical metals the modern economy and our national defense need most, in quantities surpassing every mine on land, combined, many times over,” said Mike Regan, Impossible Metals’ chief growth officer and the company’s first institutional investor. “This isn’t one machine picking up rocks. It’s swarms of autonomous robots, precision-harvesting in parallel while leaving the ecosystem intact, producing the lowest-cost critical metals on Earth.
“That capability is built here, in Pittsburgh,” said Regan, adding that the region’s engineering talent and industrial base made it the right location for the new hub.
“Earth’s last great frontier holds the largest untapped resource on the planet, and Impossible Metals is leading the world in accessing it, turning it into the critical metals and ocean data America’s defense depends on, on our terms and out of China’s,” he said.
As part of the project, Impossible Metals said it plans to work with local colleges and universities through research partnerships and student learning opportunities. The company is also considering launching an annual robotics competition focused on autonomy, marine systems and responsible resource collection.
Additional information about the hub’s location, investment, and construction timeline will be announced in the coming months, the company said.