Pittsburgh's Gecko Robotics announces $71M deal to deploy technology within U.S. Navy ships

Pittsburgh's Gecko Robotics has secured a $71 million contract to deploy its artificial intelligence and robotics technology within United States Navy warships.

Gecko Robotics announced the new deal Tuesday morning, saying that it will start with 18 different ships within the Navy's Pacific fleet. 

The Pittsburgh-based robotics company's technology is expected to help identify repairs on ships up to 50 times faster and more accurately than using manual methods, which will help reduce delays and boost overall ship readiness.

"[The] Secretary of the Navy has a very clear mandate that we have to get to 80% readiness, as relates to the fleet's availabilities," Jake Loosararian, Co-founder and CEO of Gecko, said.

Gecko said the work will be carried out across destroyers, amphibious warships, and combat ships within the Navy fleet.

"Readiness isn't just a metric. It's all that matters," said Jake Loosararian, Co-founder and CEO of Gecko. "This growing partnership is about the unfair advantages Gecko is deploying to our Navy and how prediction, through our robotics and AI products, ensures our brave men and women are the most advantaged in the world in their fight to defend freedom. Today, we announce not a contract, but a new standard that is universal across all industries: if it isn't ready, it doesn't count."

Forty percent of Gecko's employees are based in Pittsburgh, Loosararian said. He said its base here is the heart of the innovation that happens for the company, particularly on the robotics side.

Loosararian even said that he started the company with his co-founder at Grove City College in Grove City.

Gecko said that its wall-climbing robots, drones, and sensors can collect data on ships and submarines and identify current and future structural problems that can't be seen by the human eye. 

In a statement, Pennsylvania Sen. Dave McCormick (R) said he's seen firsthand how Gecko is advancing Pennsylvania's manufacturing legacy that has helped shape America's national defense for more than 200 years.

"The partnership between Gecko Robotics and the U.S. Navy shows how engineers, researchers, and skilled tradesmen from a great Pennsylvania company are leading advances in technology, artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, and robotics and giving our military the capabilities it needs for the next generation of American defense," Sen. McCormick said. 

Gecko's work on the first 18 ships within the U.S. Navy's Pacific fleet is expected to take place over five years.