CRADLE welcomed a diverse group of regulators and assurance bodies operating in demanding, long-lasting environments at the University of Manchester for a Workshop on ‘Autonomy and Safety Assurance in the Early Development of Safe Robotics and Autonomous Systems’.
Invited speakers and participants from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB), Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), Environment Agency (EA), and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) discussed key challenges and the types of evidence expected for Assured Autonomy, covering a range of use cases for autonomous inspection, including ground, nuclear, underwater, and aerial applications. The day was a great success, hopefully, the first of a series of future engagements, with the outputs contributing to CRADLE’s development of a reference assurance case for an autonomous inspection robot.
Convening such a diverse group of regulators to discuss a topic as novel as autonomy is a significant challenge – a great example to demonstrate the power and value of bringing academia and industry together via the CRADLE programme.
