£16 million boost for UK robotics

Press release issued: 10 May 2012

David Willetts, Minister for Universities and Science, will announce today [Thursday 10 May] funding for 22 exciting university-based research projects in the UK, including two at the University of Bristol.

Speaking at the official opening of the Bristol Robotics Laboratory at the University of the West of England, Minister for Universities and Science, David Willetts, will announce today [Thursday 10 May] funding for 22 exciting university-based research projects in the UK.

Led by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and an eight-strong group of partners, the investment has over £4 million in support from industry. This will include access to specialist laboratories, equipment, expertise and advice on commercialisation and industrialisation. The partners are BAE Systems, Schlumberger, National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL), Sellafield Ltd, Network Rail, SCISYS, DSTL and the UK Space Agency.

The two University of Bristol projects to be funded are:

Building vehicles with legs will look at how visual information is used to adapt to changing terrain and environment by studying how humans behave via head-mounted cameras. This could speed up the development of vision control for land-based vehicles with wheels or legs.

RIVERAS: Robust Integrated Verification of Autonomous Systems will develop techniques and methodologies that can be used to design autonomous intelligent systems that are verifiably trustworthy.

Robotics research and the development of intelligent autonomous systems, such as unmanned aircraft, are vital to many major UK companies, emerging industries, and SMEs, from advanced manufacturing to oil and gas exploration, nuclear energy to railways and automotive, healthcare to defence.

Autonomous and intelligent systems are capable of independent action in dynamic, unpredictable environments. They interact with each other and humans, using sensors to learn from their environment, adapting their behaviour and making choices based on their immediate and stored knowledge and experiences.

Mr Willetts said: “Robotics and autonomous intelligent systems are areas of science in which the UK has world class expertise, but to reap the full benefits for the economy and society we need to get better at applying the technology to industry. This £16 million investment will bring together leaders from the research base and business to develop systems for a range of important sectors, from transport to aerospace. In addition, I have asked EPSRC, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Technology Strategy Board to organise a roundtable to discuss the future of UK research in this area.”

Professor David Delpy, Chief Executive of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) which is funding the projects, said: “These technologies can help us in many practical ways, for instance, using unmanned air or land vehicles to monitor emergency situations like disasters or to carry out maintenance inspections. But the research will also look at how people and systems interact and help develop further our understanding of how knowledge can be acquired and used independently by machines that learn.”

Commenting on behalf of the six industry partners, James Baker, Managing Director of BAE Systems’ Advanced Technology Centre, said: “It is vital for the universities to work with industry to drive these technologies forward as autonomous and intelligent systems are going to be an integral part of our infrastructure and society in the near future. As partners we hold a shared goal to improve the generic technology in the field so that it can transfer and benefit many industries and sectors.

Further information

In August 2011 The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the industrial partners formed a strategic partnership to fund novel research in autonomous and intelligent systems.

The partnership asked for proposals for projects of up to five years in length were sought across a range of research to address a number of key challenges. That targeted at least one of these areas:
• Software architectures
• Sensor exploitation
• Situational awareness
• Decision making and planning
• Information management
• Verification of autonomous systems
• Model building and learning

Universities and higher education institutes involved in the projects are:

Aberdeen, Bath, Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Cranfield, Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt, Huddersfield, King’s College London, Liverpool, Loughborough, Newcastle/York/Sheffield, Oxford, Queen’s University Belfast, Southampton, Surrey

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is the UK’s main agency for funding research in engineering and the physical sciences. EPSRC invests around £800 million a year in research and postgraduate training, to help the nation handle the next generation of technological change. The areas covered range from information technology to structural engineering, and mathematics to materials science. This research forms the basis for future economic development in the UK and improvements for everyone’s health, lifestyle and culture. EPSRC works alongside other Research Councils with responsibility for other areas of research. The Research Councils work collectively on issues of common concern via Research Councils UK.