Let's Talk About The State of British Robotics

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” - Charles Dickens

As spring approaches, I pack my bags again for what is becoming a yearly event—a trip to the UK to discuss robotics. Now, most of this involves talking about robotics as I would anywhere else in the world, but the role of robotics is becoming much more critical across the country post-Brexit. So, let’s talk about the current state of British Robotics, both the good and ugly.

According to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), the UK is behind most of its significant competitors in robot adoption. The IFR measures robot density by calculating the number of robots per 10,000 employees in the manufacturing industry. The UK is still far behind comparable manufacturing nations such as the US, Germany, Italy, and China, with 98 robots per 10,000 people employed in manufacturing in 2022 – below the world average of 151.

There are several reasons for the current situation, including a widespread reluctance to invest in capital equipment that has short payback periods, as well as the perception that robotics and automation technology are costly and require skilled personnel to operate and maintain. Unfortunately, this lack of investment in automation has resulted in poor productivity compared to our major competitors and a declining competitive position.

Economic growth is important because it provides jobs and improves living standards. A strong growth rate means more employment opportunities and higher disposable income. While money is essential for a better quality of life, it cannot guarantee happiness.

Andy Haldane, former chief economist at the Bank of England, has argued that gross domestic product (GDP), which measures the value of goods and services produced in an economy over a certain time period, does not measure everything that improves our well-being. However, Haldane still believes that sustained rises in GDP have been shown to improve our health, wealth, and happiness over the course of history.

Productivity growth leads to economic growth and higher living standards. Increased employment or investment may not lead to higher wages, but productivity growth increases the value of labor and allows for higher wages. As economist Paul Krugman said, "Productivity isn’t everything, but, in the long run, it is almost everything. A country’s ability to improve its standard of living over time depends almost entirely on its ability to raise its output per worker."

The UK economy has experienced weak growth since the financial crisis of 2007-2008, mainly due to low productivity growth. Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that productivity has deviated from its pre-financial crisis trend rate of 2% from 2008 onwards. The OBR believes that the economy has weak underlying momentum due to low productivity growth, high energy prices, stagnating business investment, and a recent rise in labor market inactivity. The latest OBR forecast suggests that GDP will contract this year but recover to grow at 1.9% per year by the end of the forecast period. However, this is based on a trend of productivity growth recovering to 1.1%.

The slowdown in productivity growth that underlies weak economic growth is known as the 'productivity puzzle'. Various research projects have been set up to try and understand it. In 2021, the UK Productivity Commission was established to examine the UK's poor productivity performance and provide policy solutions to address the shortfall. It focused on understanding the role of investment in supporting productivity growth.

'The Economy 2030 Inquiry' was another initiative that attempted to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the UK economy. Its interim report highlighted the UK's weak investment record compared with other advanced economies. Investment in human capital, infrastructure, and regulatory and competition policies were amongst the most popular options for improving productivity growth.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industry Strategy (BEIS) suggests UK businesses invest more in robotics and autonomous systems to boost productivity and generate £6.4 billion ($8.41 billion) for the UK economy by 2035. While the IFR 2022 report shows UK lags in robotics installations, but UK businesses have made significant progress in industrial applications.

According to many manufacturing experts, the large number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that make up the core of UK manufacturing focus on luxury and bespoke productions, therefore limiting the use of robotics. These SMEs in UK manufacturing can also be generally characterized as producing lower volume, small batch, and higher value products, which is less suitable for any form of automation. Other countries still have a significant base of higher-volume businesses, which have been more suited to robots and automation.

The automotive sector is the largest user of robots in the UK, with half of the total robots being used by OEMs and their suppliers. This sector has historically driven the development and deployment of robot technology worldwide, so the UK automotive sector has to use robots, because everyone else is. However, other sectors, such as plastics, bakery, and food and beverage manufacturing (F&B), have also seen an increase in robot uptake in recent years. The latter sector (F&B) has the potential for significant growth due to its large workforce, last listed at over 456,000 workers and valued at over £104.4 billion, valued at over £104.4 billion which makes it more valuable than the British automotive AND aerospace industries combined!!

According to the British Automation and Robot Association (BARA), the food and beverage industry was the second biggest purchaser of automation after the automotive sector for the first time in 2021. From 2019 (pre-COVID) to 2021 (post-COVID), individual robot sales to the British F&B sector were up 63%! It appears that those wanting to sell robots to a specific industry in the UK, you know which industry it is.

The UK is experiencing a shortage of engineers, which will continue to make it difficult to design, deploy, and then implement more robotics and automation. Educational courses are being developed to address the skill gap at various levels, including L3 to L7 apprenticeships and degree courses. Upskilling programs need to be developed to address the immediate shortage of technicians. There is some good news in the Workforce section of the newsletter to discuss that. In the long term, greater engagement in schools will be necessary to generate enthusiasm for STEM subjects and provide a talent pipeline something that other countries are also trying to address.

Then, there are the growing investments in robotic research by the UK government. While it is hard to nail down a specific number of how much money has found its way into the research labs, three organizations always seem to appear next to many research projects.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI): UKRI is a major funding body in the UK that supports research and innovation across various disciplines. It brings together seven research councils, Innovate UK, and Research England under one umbrella to streamline funding and drive collaboration. UKRI funds research projects, supports innovation initiatives, and invests in the development of talent and skills.
Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF): Launched in 2017, the ISCF is a UK government initiative aimed at addressing major industrial and societal challenges through research and innovation. It provides funding to support collaborative projects between businesses, academia, and other stakeholders, focusing on areas where the UK has the potential to become a global leader, such as robotics
EU Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe: EU Horizon 2020, spanning from 2014 to 2020, was the European Union's largest research and innovation program, aiming to drive economic growth and address societal challenges. During this period, the UK significantly benefited from Horizon 2020 funding, participating in collaborative research projects across various fields, including robotics. Post-Brexit, the UK's association to Horizon Europe, the successor program to Horizon 2020, enabled continued participation in collaborative research endeavors. Horizon Europe, spanning from 2021 to 2027, maintains a focus on funding cutting-edge research and innovation projects, including those in robotics, fostering collaboration among European and international partners to address shared challenges.

In the past decades, numerous new labs and R&D shops have been launched. The National Robotarium, based at Heriot-Watt University in partnership with the University of Edinburgh, plays a pivotal role in advancing robotics research, innovation, and commercialization in the UK. Bristol Robotics Laboratory, a partnership between the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England, is one of the largest robotics research centers in the UK. Research spans various domains, including bio-inspired robotics, swarm robotics, and robotics for healthcare. Then there is the robotics work at Oxford, Cambridge, the Royal College of Art, Imperial College London, and so many others. This is one of the reasons I am heading to the UK this trip - to learn from and talk with all of these robot researchers who are working on projects that will, in time, lift the UK higher up the robot density list through training more robot engineers and technicians and also developing robotic applications to solve UK issues.

As the saying goes, there is nowhere to go but up. That is where the UK is currently. This is going to take a lot of work. While Brexit has created numerous challenges, it has also created many opportunities. With solid data in hand and the correct alignments between the government, academia, and industry, the UK can develop a roadmap that will move them up that robot density chart.

An upcoming election cycle may throw another wrench into the mix, but that should be only a tiny bump in the road. With a large majority of support from the major parties, there is little doubt these programs to advance robotics and robot training will continue.

While many polls point to the Labour Party taking control of the UK government after the next election, there is little talk about cutting robotics. Labour has stated that they see tech policy and investment as a lever to get UK productivity back into high gear.

According to the Labour shadow minister for industrial strategy, science, and innovation, Chi Onwurah stated, “There’s so much growth which is science, research, and innovation-driven. The policies that I’m working on close that gap between our fantastic science base and our less than equally productive regional economies.”

If Labor takes control after the next election, one would expect to see more investment in worker training and reskilling programs to help individuals transition to new roles and industries. However, they also expect more regulation and oversight, and Labour also calls for advanced tech to be rolled out “safely, ethically, and in a way that benefits workers and communities.” That can mean different things to different people. But it does give us in the Standards world a reason to pay more attention to the UK.

The UK has a tough road ahead, but I look forward to being part of it even though I am not British. But the beauty about the worldwide robotics community is that we don’t care who you are or where you are from as long as we all get to advance robotics and help those who want to move up to the next level through robots and automation.

Nvidia enlists humanoid robotics’ biggest names for new AI platform, GR00T

Nvidia has announced Project GR00T, a new AI platform for humanoid robots. The project aims to provide a general-purpose foundation model for the recent spate of entries into the category, including companies like Agility Robotics, Apptronik, Boston Dynamics, Fourier Intelligence, and Sanctuary AI. The new platform will be supported by Nvidia's new computer, Jetson Thor. The announcement is a validation for the category that will almost certainly accelerate development.

1,500 Robotics Startups Have Raised $90 Billion, But Investment Just Cratered

Investment in robotics fell to a five-year low in 2023, with autonomous vehicles being hit particularly hard. The biggest sector for investment in 2023 was vertical-specific robots, led by investments in defense and logistics. Exits in the robotics space declined significantly in 2023 as well. However, the enabling systems space is still interesting as all of the robots that we build need to see, compute, communicate, and move, all of which involve entire industry segments around technologies like LiDAR, sensors, chips, and motors. Western markets, including the U.S., Europe, and Israel, were 70% of overall investment, which is a positive for these regions as they retool for home-shoring industrial production.

Mercedes-Benz testing Apollo humanoid

Mercedes-Benz is testing the Apollo humanoid robot developed by Apptronik. They plan to use the robot in their production line to bring parts for assembly while inspecting them. Apollo will also deliver totes of kitted parts later in the manufacturing process.

Omnidirectional tripedal robot scoots, shuffles and climbs

Researchers from the University of Michigan have developed a three-legged robot called SKOOTR that can skate and shuffle in any direction and overcome obstacles. The idea came from assistant professor Talia Y. Moore, who noticed the omnidirectional maneuverability of her office chair. The team added a freely rotating sphere to address dynamic instability and inefficiencies.

How AI taught Cassie the two-legged robot to run and jump

Researchers have used an AI technique called reinforcement learning to teach a two-legged robot nicknamed Cassie to run 400 meters, jump over varying terrains, and execute standing long jumps and high jumps, without being trained explicitly on each movement. This approach rewards or penalizes the AI as it tries to carry out an objective, helping the robot to generalize and respond in new scenarios. The goal was to teach the robot to learn how to do all kinds of dynamic motions, like humans. (love the shoes, btw.)

UK Robotics and Autonomous Systems Strategic Technical Platform gets UKRI funding

UKRAS STEPS, led by Professor Robert Richardson, is a platform to advance research in the UK's Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS). The platform aims to address challenges in the field by facilitating secondments, training programs, and mentorship schemes, enhancing equality and diversity within the research technician workforce of universities in the UK.

Lawmakers consider bill to establish new apprenticeship, robotics hub in Connecticut

A proposal to establish an advanced manufacturing apprenticeship and community robotics center at Tunxis Community College in Farmington is gaining support from business advocates in Connecticut.

Senate Bill 430, introduced by the Commerce Committee, seeks authorization for up to $4 million in bonds from the state Bond Commission to establish the center within the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system. This facility, developed in collaboration with local manufacturers, aims to address the state's workforce shortage by providing advanced manufacturing programming and training in robotics.

With a significant investment required to launch the center, advocates emphasize the importance of funding to prepare future employees for the evolving manufacturing landscape. Industry leaders, including the Connecticut Business & Industry Association (CBIA) and Connecticut Roundtable on Climate and Jobs (CRCJ), endorse the proposal, highlighting the critical need for skilled workers in the growing manufacturing sector.

Nvidia won the week with the announcement of their Project GR00T for humanoid robotics.

Nvidia’s comprehensive AI platform for humanoid robots has attracted partnerships with renowned companies such as 1X Technologies, Agility Robotics, Apptronik, Boston Dynamics, Figure AI, Fourier Intelligence, Sanctuary AI, Unitree Robotics, and XPENG Robotics. These collaborations ensure that the development of humanoid robots is not limited to isolated efforts but benefits from a shared ecosystem of expertise and resources.