Nevada-based private marine technology and deep-sea mining company Impossible Metals has announced its plans to open a new Advanced Marine Robotics Hub, in Pittsburgh, which will serve as a centre to build the next generation of American mineral robotics technology.

Hosting roboticists, autonomy engineers and marine system specialists, the hub will create more than a dozen new high-paying engineering and science jobs in the Commonwealth, with room to grow as the company scales.

At the hub, teams will advance new ocean science, dual-use naval and critical mineral capabilities that build on Impossible Metals' "Eureka" autonomous underwater platform and its smart launch and recovery systems.

Impossible Metals is bringing its most ambitious engineering to the city that invented modern robotics, the company says, adding that it aims to have America be the leader in autonomous marine and ocean-science systems to secure the critical minerals that China currently controls.

For context, Pittsburgh is home to more than 140 robotics companies and the university ecosystem that launched the field, and it is fast becoming a national centre for defence autonomy and “physical AI".

“On the ocean floor lie potato-sized rocks called polymetallic nodules, and they hold the critical metals the modern economy and our national defence need most, in quantities surpassing every mine on land, combined, many times over. 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," says Impossible Metals executive chairperson Steve Curnutte.

Impossible Metals' Eureka system is designed to collect supplies of nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese in the lowest-cost and lowest-impact way. By using AI-guided robotics to pick up individual polymetallic nodules without dredging or disturbing the ocean floor, the company aims to deliver the responsible, secure and domestic critical mineral supplies that the American economy and industrial base require.

As part of the company's commitment to the region, it plans to develop partnerships with local colleges and universities, including collaborative research with faculty, hands-on opportunities for students and possibly a yearly robotics competition that would challenge young engineers to solve real problems in autonomy, marine systems and responsible resource collection.