There are definitely non-defense robotics companies out there! It's just that, well, defense pays well, and most robotics companies that have been started bootstrapped themselves with military research funding. That's starting to change, though.
Check out this by no means comprehensive list:
In Boston:
Heartland Robotics
iRobot (their Home Robots side)
Kiva Systems
Harvest Automation (though they are very early stage and not really hiring)
In Pittsburgh:
I don't know all the names, but many companies have spun out of CMU that do "field robotics". There's also a medical robotics company called Aethon that's kind of cool.
In California:
Vision Robotics
ROCONA
Intuitive Surgical
InTouch Health
Wowwee Toys
My other suggestion is to look at
The Robot Report and check out their list of companies at the bottom. Non-military robots are out there, I promise!