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Empowering UK and global industries with advanced Robotics and Autonomous Systems

The CRADLE Prosperity Partnership brings together the industrial experience that Jacobs has in applied Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) with the research expertise at The University of Manchester in this field, to create a collaborative research centre that is internationally leading and sustainable in the long term.

Work Package 1 – Components

Improving the reliability of sub-systems to ensure mission success in resilient robot autonomy.

Research Themes:

  1. Robust Sensor Fusion
  2. Human-Understandable Confidence Metrics
  3. Risk-Aware Motion Planning and Control
  4. Modelling and Control of Complex Robotics Systems

Academic Leads: Bruno Adorno and Keir Groves

Industry Lead: Marti Morta-Garriga

Work Package 2 – Architectures

Designing resilient and verifiable software architectures for the reliable deployment of autonomous robots in demanding and long-lasting scenarios.

Research Themes:

  1. Architectural Transparency
  2. Mechanisms for Robot Collectives
  3. System Aware Architectures

Academic Lead: Michael Fisher

Industry Lead: John Brotherhood

Work Package 3 – Interactions

Enhancing collaboration by addressing challenges in human and robot interactions for trustworthy and effective teamwork.

Research Themes:

  1. Robots to Humans
  2. Humans to Robots
  3. From One to Many

Academic Lead: Angelo Cangelosi

Industry Lead: Kathryn Mearns

Work Package 4 – Assurance

Generating better evidence and arguments for ethical, safe, and secure design and implementation of robotics and autonomous systems.

Research Themes:

  1. Evidence Generation
  2. Informing Future Standards
  3. Design for Assurance

Academic Lead: Louise Dennis

Industry Leads: Frederic Wheeler, John Mackey and Harry Newton

Work Package 5 – Demonstrators

Showcasing next-generation solutions in a range of cyber-physical environments leading to the deployment of robotic platforms in the real world.

Research Themes:

  1. Requirements and Benchmarking Analysis
  2. Design Tool Chains
  3. Simulated Environments
  4. Cyber-Physical Mission Environments

Academic Lead: Simon Watson

Industry Lead: Matthew Goundry