CRADLE Industry Day: National Highways
CRADLE is hosting a series of ‘industrial sprint’ workshops aimed at sparking innovation to tackle sector-specific challenges.
The first event was for National Highways, which is responsible for operating, maintaining and improving England’s major roads.
They wanted to discuss ways in which highway inspection could be carried out more safely, by using robotics and remote operations to reduce the amount of time people spend on the road in hazardous conditions.
The day was attended by representatives from Jacobs, The University of Manchester, and National Highways. The team spent the morning discussing the breadth of challenges facing National Highways, then used the afternoon to prioritise these challenges in terms of urgency and impact.
As a result of the workshop discussions, the CRADLE team is now assessing potential robotic inspection scenarios, including where we may be able to transfer technologies and techniques from other industries. Potential solutions will be developed before being demonstrated at the National Highways test facility towards the end of the year.
