A grant from the Technology Collaborative, a local economic-development engine, has lured a Washington state software firm to set up a robotics testing facility in town.

The Technology Collaborative announced yesterday it had provided $1.3 million in grants to eight research projects, including $217,000 to launch the CoroWare Test Labs Inc., a subsidiary of CoroWare Inc., of Bellevue, Wash. The lab will assess whether robots developed by different manufacturers meet a new industry standard, known as Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems, or JAUS.

The lab initially will be located in the Technology Collaborative's North Side office space with two employees until the group finds a permanent location. "The intention is to get four to six staffers in place," said Technology Collaborative Chief Executive Officer David Ruppersberger. "But part of that will be driven by the business side."

The recipients, including the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, were selected from among 22 proposals submitted to the Collaborative for grants to help develop technologies that have commercial potential. The Collaborative supports research and firms primarily in the fields of advanced electronics, robotics and cyber security.

Ruppersberger said the grants, awarded twice a year, go to start-up companies, established firms that are developing a new product or university research backed by companies that are trying to commercialize products. "The project won't get funded if it doesn't have commercial sponsors," he said.

Most of the grants went to research projects at CMU, Pitt and Penn State University. The projects include a specialized "semi-autonomous" wheelchair for the disabled, sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh, and an ultrasonic pipeline inspection system that Penn State will develop and Homestead-based RedZone Robotics will evaluate.

Valley Technologies, based in Tamaqua, Schuylkill County, which develops hardware and software used in space-based imaging, was among the recipients, receiving a grant to hire high-level engineers to develop a new product that has both commercial and military uses, according to the Collaborative.