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MOTORS, DRIVES, CONTROLS


RALLYING ROBOTICS


D


espite being the eighth largest manufacturing nation in the world, the UK ranks only 25th on the global scale


of robot density according the IFR World Robotics 2023 report. With the Made Smarter Review report (BEIS 2017) identifying the value of robotics adoption in UK manufacturing to be some £184 billion over 10 years, there is clearly a lack of scale within the robotics supply chain, particularly in the system integration community. That is according to the


Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), which alongside the University of Birmingham is seeking to change this narrative with the establishment of a West Midlands robotics and autonomous systems (RAS) cluster. The initiative aims to provide a catalyst to unlock the UK’s RAS capabilities and encourage greater utilisation of these technologies throughout industry. “According to the Copenhagen


Business School, if the UK was to automate to the same level as the current most automated countries in Europe, we would improve our productivity by more than 22%,” says Mike Wilson, chief automation off icer at the MTC. “That is bigger than the productivity gap we have with our major competitors, which is around 15-17%, so we would actually overtake all of our major competitors in terms


44 www.engineerlive.com


of productivity just by achieving the same levels of automation as them.”


UNTAPPED VALUE RAS technologies represent a major opportunity for the future prosperity of UK industry, the MTC says. The West Midlands initiative is inspired by the original RAS cluster created in Odense, Denmark, one of the world’s leading nations for robotics adoption despite having no automotive or electronics manufacturing sectors. The country is currently ranked 12th in robotic density, more than double that of the UK. The MTC believes the Odense RAS cluster acts as a strong case study for what could be possible in the UK. “More recently, Pittsburgh in the


US has followed a similar path and they’ve had an awful lot of publicity in recent years,” Wilson adds. “There are now almost 15,000 robotics-related jobs in the Pittsburgh region, and they’ve attracted almost $3.5 billion of equity into those businesses. This illustrates how this kind of clustering approach can be very successful.” Learning from what the rest of


the world is doing is fundamental to bolstering the UK’s robotics capabilities, he continues: “We want to build a RAS cluster that will support growth, skills development, improve productivity and resilience, and ultimately strengthen our economy. Vital to this will be improving


The West Midlands RAS cluster holds huge potential for participating companies and institutions


A new initiative is poised to help the UK manufacturing sector realise the benefi ts of robots and autonomous systems


cooperation and communication between stakeholders, developing the technologies that are emerging from universities, and accelerating start-ups.”


PAVING THE WAY The MTC has identifi ed the West Midlands as the ideal region to create the UK’s fi rst RAS cluster, due to its “signifi cant potential”. Through the cluster, the MTC hopes to raise the profi le of businesses in the area working on RAS technologies, artifi cial intelligence (AI) and software, while also attracting related businesses to the region and supporting start-ups and spin-off s from local universities. “We want to fi nd ways of supporting


more of these kinds of businesses so that we can develop solutions that UK industry needs,” says Wilson. “We want to grow something that is successful in the UK, but ultimately enable these solutions and technologies to be sold overseas. We see RAS as a very exciting technology that could capture the younger generation’s interest and entice them into engineering-based subjects at college and university, which in turn will strengthen the UK’s skill base.”


For more information visit: www.the-mtc.org


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