I attended an event recently where the blockers to the commercial adoption of robotics in the UK were raised, these typically included lack of testing facilities, standards and infrastructure. I'm keen to know what the IET community thinks, why is it that the UK has a strong academic base in robotics, and yet the conversion to industry adoption of the technology is comparatively low?
Robotics for what?
I'm pretty sure that certain parts of industry does make significant use of robotics.
Fair comment, I'd say the emphasis was on robots that are more 'autonomous' and not the more fixed automation that you would find in factories. Still I believe that overall the UK is behind on robotics adoption more generally: https://www.roboticstomorrow.com/article/2023/10/whats-holding-back-robot-adoption-with-the-uk-lagging-behind-its-competitors-what-needs-to-change/21328
Mostly because they don't actually work in the real world, outside robots programmed to work in carefully laid out warehouses.
I'd turn the question around: what are the problems that could be solved with autonomous robots in the UK that aren't, and why not? As engineers it's very tempting to start with the solution and then find a problem to fit it, but if there's no actual need then it won't get taken up.
History tends to show that effective product introduction is through someone seeing an actual problem and realising that they know a solution to fix it.
(Same comment of course applies to almost any discussion involving AI...)
Possibly the applications are niche - for example this one: Spot the robot dog could change how we perform surveys - National Highways
Note that this system has been used by a number of civil engineering companies for a similar purpose.
Thanks Mark, do you think this is a valid use case? Do you think it could be used more widely across civil engineering?
Thanks Andy, so is it that the UK doesn't have problems that could be solved by the current state of robotics/ autonomy? And that's why we don't see a level of robotics adoption that matches the hype? Is it a case of waiting for the technology to mature so that the problems that can be solved by the technology become more apparent?
depends what you think the problems are. If the robots could solve youth unemployment, lower house prices and stop small boats landing on the south coast, there are enough folk here that would welcome them for each of those with open arms. Mundane stuff, like dentistry, hair cuts and unblocking drains and replacing tap washers we are used to having done by humans, but if it did it faster and cheaper, maybe, but only after its had a decade or two to bed in. And I for one would prefer different ones for the drains and the teeth rather than some universal machine.
Mike.
Given the cost of hiring such equipment and the fact I have read of multiple cases, I would suggest its definitely a valid use case. However, I'll leave you to do some research on why this specific application suits the use of the robot dog.
Note the spot is a specific AI and not a generalised AI.
Could spot be used more widely across civil engineering? No, its not well adapted for other tasks. I can hardly imagine it operating a crane, or a digger, or shovelling dirt.
We all submit to our new robot overlords!
I can't help but think this is just going to be another example of the complicators gloves. The generalised AIs are only as good as their programmer and the data they are trained on. The LLM's seem to be trained on all sorts of junk. Junk in, junk out.
The other issue is safety. Although a human is an unreliable and buggy device, for generic tasks its more efficient and predicable otherwise they would have banned human drivers years ago. Tightly constrained specific AI's can achieve achieve better quality, but that takes a lot of sensors and training data to get that far. My car can't detect pedal bikes at all. I wouldn't let a generic AI operate any vehicle - ever. Its not a case of waiting for technology to catch up. Fundamentally its the wrong tool for the job.
The original article mentions that we are statistically 24th in the world in terms of robotics use and is specifically concerned with food processing industries. But chasing the linked articles, it later goes on to say that one of the reasons is that a lot of UK manufacturing are SMEs which lack the capital for large investments, such as automation. There is however, no data provided on any of the linked articles.
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