UK robotics hubs to drive adoption of new tech

Eight new Robotics Adoption Hubs are to be rolled out across the UK, the government has announced.

The hubs will get £40m to offer advice and support to businesses and public services looking to use the latest technologies and switch to automation.

One, in Newcastle, will help healthcare providers adopt robotic-assisted surgery while another, in Lincoln, will assist the farming and food industries with innovations such as automated fruit-picking machines.

AI and Robotics Minister Kanishka Narayan said harnessing robotics “in every sector of our economy” could “speed up how we reindustrialise the UK”.

On a visit to Lincoln Institute for Agri-Food Technology to announce a new £6.3m HARVEST hub, Narayan said he was “confident” British innovation “can stand the test internationally if we keep up the future of technology”.

He was shown automated robots moving along strawberry crops, another moving across a ploughed field and a third shooting pulses of concentrated light on to soil to boil and kill the cells of a weed.

“Farmers are really struggling to be able to find workers to pick fruit when they need them and in some cases that means a big change in the cost, and so clearly that element of farming has changed and the question is how we can support our farmers to stay in business,” he said.

“I’ve witnessed first hand, even in combine harvesters and robotics in dairy farming, how much of a change that’s made in British farming by this technology and I’m hoping today’s announcement will make a big contribution to that.”