A new advanced agri-technology training centre will bring together the largest ever cohort of agri-robotics and autonomous systems specialists, right here in the UK.
The world’s first Centre for Doctoral Training for agri-food robotics is being established by the University of Lincoln, in collaboration with the University of Cambridge and the University of East Anglia thanks to multi-million-pound funding award, announced today (February 4).
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has awarded £6.6 million for the new centre which will see a massive influx of high-level robotics expertise at a vital time for the agri-food industry.
The centre will provide funding and training for at least 50 doctoral students.
All 50 students will follow a common foundational year, studying on the new MSc Robotics and Autonomous Systems at the University of Lincoln.
Then 20 of the students will carry out their PhD studies at Lincoln, 20 at Cambridge, and 10 at UEA. The wide-scale engagement with industry will enable the students’ research to be pushed rapidly towards real-world applications in the agri-food industry.
The students will be supported by major industry partners to specialise in areas critical for improving the practicality of robotics on-farm.
These areas include:
- Autonomous mobility in challenging environments;
- The harvesting of agricultural crops;
- Soft robotics for handling delicate food products; and
- ‘Co-bots’ for maintaining safe human-robot collaboration and interaction in farms and factories.
Tom Duckett, professor of Robotics and Autonomous Systems at Lincoln, is the new centre director.
He said: “Automation and robotics technologies are set to transform global industries – within the UK alone, they will add £183 billion to the economy over the next decade.
“Agri-food is the largest manufacturing sector in the UK – twice the scale of automotive and aerospace combined – supporting a food chain, from farm to fork, which generates Global Value Added of £108 billion, with 3.9 million employees in a truly international industry.
“However, the global food chain is under pressure from population growth, climate change, political pressures affecting migration, population drift from rural to urban regions, and the demographics of an ageing population in advanced economies.
“Addressing these challenges requires a new generation of highly-skilled robotics researchers and leaders, and our new Centre for Doctoral Training will be dedicated to delivering that. It will be a real focal point for robotics innovation in the UK.”
Addressing the skills gap
The Centre for Doctoral Training represents an important partnership between robotics researchers from the Lincoln Centre for Autonomous Systems (L-CAS) and agricultural experts from the Lincoln Institute for Agri-food Technology (LIAT), as they work together to combat these pressing issues facing the global food chain.
Director of the Lincoln Institute for Agri-food Technology, Prof. Simon Pearson, said: ´It is widely agreed that robotics will transform the food and farming industries in the coming years, but there is still a major skills gap in this area.
“Working with our industry and academic partners to design the 50 PhD scholarships will enable us to expand the UK’s science and engineering base, delivering a flood of skills and expertise that will drive our food and farming industries into the future.”
The work is supported by industry stakeholders such as John Deere, Syngenta, G’s Growers, Beeswax Dyson, ABB Group, and the Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board (AHDB).
It is one of 75 new centres for doctoral training to be funded as part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) in what is hailed as one of the country’s most significant investments in research skills.
Robots than can see
Prof. Richard Harvey, senior lecturer in Computer Science at UEA, added: “Agriculture remains an important and atavistic activity in the UK but it is the most dangerous of all the main UK industry sectors.
“Given that, isn’t it astonishing that so much effort is devoted to robots for driving and delivering parcels to your door?
This project will initiate a new movement to build robots to handle the unpleasant, difficult and repetitive aspects of farming.
“At UEA, our expertise is in computer vision – which is making computers that see. We’d like to build robots that can see when an ear of corn has ripened or to be able to measure the amount of sunlight falling on a field of wheat or to tell when beans are ready for picking.
“This is blue skies research with an East of England flavour and we look forward to developing new systems that handle the challenge of being on a farm.”
