Strategic Task Groups

Utilising robotics and autonomous systems to increase automation will be essential for the UK to increase productivity and remain internationally competitive. However, the biggest barrier to advancing the RAS sector of the UK economy and to boosting UK productivity more generally is skills and education. A 2016 review by the The ScaleUp Institute highlighted the “consistent, ongoing demand … [of UK companies] … for STEM skills across all parts of the country and most industry sectors”, and concluded that “access to people with the right skills was the biggest barrier preventing their growth”. RAS research in the UK also suffers from a lack of diversity.

The “Skills and Education in Robotics and Autonomous Systems” Task Group aims to understand RAS training needs; identify gaps, challenges, opportunities and best practises; demystify RAS technologies and inspire people from diverse backgrounds to explore RAS careers; and influence public policy. To achieve these aims, the Task Group will organise a hackathon, engagement activities, and a national conference to address the skills gap in RAS. The Task Group’s activities will culminate with the publication of a White Paper on how to close the UK RAS skills gap.

Soft robotics is a new and rapidly growing field of research that expands traditional robot design to incorporate a range of new materials including silicon, hydrogels and smart materials. This highly interdisciplinary approach can develop solutions relevant to a wide range of sectors, from agriculture to health and from industry to entertainment. UK researchers are at the forefront of this new field and this Strategic Task Group will help to strengthen that position and establish a roadmap for soft robotics to meet both industrial and societal needs.

The “Soft Robotics” Task Group will establish an industry advisory board to foster closer links between academic research and the needs of industry and create and manage a website as a central hub for soft robotics researchers. The Task Group will organise a recurring research competition for young researchers focussed around the grand challenges identified through consultation with the industry advisory board.

Legged robotics is a rapidly growing field of research with potential applications in industry inspection and maintenance, security, and particularly in assistive technologies for rehabilitation and mobility.

The “Legged Robotics and Locomotion Technical Committee” aims to form a collective body of academics and industry partners; organise a winter school for early career researchers; host public engagement activities; and publish a White Paper on legged robotics and locomotion.

Robotics is as the forefront of surgical innovation and has spearheaded developments in precision medicine, personalised healthcare, and quality of-life improvement. Although the field is 25 years old, new innovations such as artificial intelligence and soft actuators are laying the foundations for major breakthroughs in the future. To maintain the UK’s leading role in this field, the robotics community will benefit from periodic research scoping exercises that review the current state and develop a roadmap for future progress.

The “Surgical Robotics” Task Group will organise workshops for academics and surgeons to review the state-of-the-art in UK Surgical Robotics, publish an updated version of the 2016 UK-RAS White Paper on Surgical Robotics, and release a video documentary on UK Surgical Robotics.

Robotics is revolutionising the way we produce food in the UK, from autonomous weeding and drilling robots to flexible food manufacturing systems on the factory floor. These “farm to fork” technologies bring together the fields of artificial intelligence, sensing, soft robotics, locomotion, and many more to create robots that can successfully navigate the farm or factory environment, manipulate a variety of agricultural products from the delicate to the bulky, and work collaboratively with humans in the field.

The “Strategic Task Group in Agri-Robotics” aims to bring together researchers in robotics, autonomous systems and AI with a focus on agriculture and food production. The Task Group will organise a summer school on agri-food technology, an academic symposium and public demos; set up an industry- and government-focussed panel; establish an agri-food-based competition for autonomous robots; and publish a White Paper outlining plans for a national lifelong learning collaborative for professional development in agri-food technologies. Additionally, they will devise plans for a national test facility for benchmarking and demonstrating new agri-food technologies.

Establishing a UK-Cross Industry RAS Development Task Force, and associated community of interest puts a much-needed focus on the development side of the R&D equation in support of a co-ordinated, whole economy approach to the exploitation of advancing RAS capabilities. The Task Force is working to document a clearer understanding of the work programmes currently driving the potential for RAS investment, extrapolate the common requirements and underpin opportunities for cross-sector leadership to establish the fundamentals of scalable solutions that underpin broad economic growth and the modernisation of the UK’s strategically critical sectors. Initiatives include the curation of a cross-sector problem book and innovation strategy, and hosted discussions and events to inform requirements gathering for investments, standards and regulations, policy, and research.