San Antonio’s growing robotics scene draws national attention, invitation to exhibit at big U.S. show

When Shaun Edwards co-founded Plus One Robotics in 2016, venture capitalists told him to pack up the company and move it to Austin. They warned him he couldn’t build a robotics company in San Antonio. Instead of heading north, he set up his successful company here and founded SATX Robotix, a community of technologists working on autonomous vehicles, drones and industrial robots who meet to network and present the freshest technology in their fields. “I decided if we build a community in San Antonio, then the next time somebody brings Austin up I can say, ‘We do have a community of roboticists in San Antonio,’” Edwards said at the group’s meeting last week. “Now there are more roboticists in San Antonio than Austin and we have a meetup that easily beats the number of people that go to meetups in Austin. Our community in San Antonio is much larger.”

It’s getting national attention. Dozens of SATX Robotix members gathered Thursday to celebrate news that San Antonio has been recognized by the U.S. Alliance of Robotics Clusters, a group of nonprofits and organizations based in Boston, Pittsburgh and Silicon Valley — the nation’s largest robotics hubs. The alliance invited San Antonio-based robotics startups to co-exhibit at the International Manufacturing Technology Show in September in Chicago. It’s the nation’s largest manufacturing and automation show. “We’re elevating our profile and doing something with the Big Three, which has always been the mission of our group,” Stephanie Garcia, a business development specialist at Port San Antonio who organizes events for SATX Robotix, told the group. “This is not Austin that was invited. This was San Antonio.” She also announced that she’s started the state’s first chapter of the international nonprofit Women In Robotics. “I think we can show everybody that we are Robo City USA,” she said to applause. For years, San Antonio has been known as Military City USA. Its tech growth has sprung, in part, from its military connections.