National Agri-Robotics Proving Ground

该项目是一项为期两个月的可行性研究，探讨了建立国家机器人试验场的概念以及随后产生的广泛影响，该试验场专注于农业食品管道中的机器人。该行业有大量机会整合一系列服务（和工业）机器人，该行业雇用了不到400万名员工，占英国劳动力总数的13%。包括农业、制造业、批发业、零售业和餐饮业在内，该行业在2019年贡献了1270亿英镑，占全国GVA的6.4%。GVA和国家劳动力之间的不成比例为加速机器人技术在这一领域的应用提供了令人信服的理由，特别是考虑到过去5年来生活工资增长了58%，以及主要由英国脱欧和新冠肺炎造成的劳动力短缺。机器人试验场包括一个创新的跨学科战略，重点关注技术挑战，同时突出社会经济问题。本研究的目标是回答以下问题：* 通过一个物理中心或一组连接的分布式设施，国家机器人社区是否会得到更好的服务，并从现有的基础设施和设备投资中获得更多优势？*除农业食品外，还有哪些领域通过基于技术的主题与农业食品自然联系在一起，它们如何分享以农业食品为主题的试验场的好处？* Digital Twins能否支持远程访问和实验？*如何运作国家试验场，以便最好地促进科学研究和技术准备，并直接应用于农业食品部门以及其他部门？国家试验场如何超越技术领域，提供设施来测试机器人的社会和安全方面，教育公众，并激发与机器人现实世界部署相关的一系列经济和政策因素的讨论？为了在给定的两个月时间内实现这些目标，该项目分为两项活动。该项目的第一个月侧重于咨询，覆盖直接和间接受机器人融入现实世界影响的广泛而多样的社区，目的是确定技术需求，社会经济问题和实际问题。该项目第二个月的重点是设计、汇总和分析咨询期的结果，目的是为拟议的试验场制定全面的规格，并就设施、地点和财务范围提出建议。

This project is a two-month feasibility study that explores the concept of establishing and subsequent broad impacts resulting from a National Robotics Proving Ground that concentrates on robots in the agri-food pipeline. There are substantial opportunities for integrating a range of service (and industrial) robots across this sector, which employs just under 4 million employees, or 13% of the total UK workforce. Including agriculture, manufacturing, wholesaling, retailing and catering, this sector contributed £127 billion or 6.4% of national GVA in 2019 \[DEFRA\_Agriculture\_in\_the\_UK\_2020\]. The disproportion between GVA and national workforce makes a compelling argument for accelerating the application of robotics in this sector, particularly in light of the 58% increase in living wage over the last 5 years and the labour shortages stemming largely from Brexit and Covid-19\.The vision for this National Agri-Robotics Proving Ground comprises an innovative and interdisciplinary strategy focussed on technical challenges while highlighting socio-economic issues. The goals of this study are to answer the following questions:* Would the national robotics community be better served and realise more advantage from existing infrastructure and equipment investment through one physical centre or a connected set of distributed facilities?* Which additional domains, outside of agri-food, are naturally linked to agri-food, through technology-based themes and how can they share in the benefits of an agri-food themed proving ground?* Can digital twins support remote access and experimentation?* How can the national proving ground be operated in order to best serve to advance scientific research and technology readiness, with direct application to the agri-food sector, as well as beyond?* How can the national proving ground look beyond the technical realm and provide facilities to test societal and safety aspects of robotics, educate the general public and stimulate discussion across a range of economic and policy factors associated with real-world deployment of robots?To address these goals within the given two-month time period the project is structured as two activities. The first month of the project focuses on consultation, reaching across the broad and diverse communities directly and indirectly affected by the integration of robots in real-world settings, with the objective of identifying technical needs, socio-economic concerns and practical issues. The second month of the project focuses on design, pulling together and analysing the results of the consultation period, with the objective of producing a comprehensive specification for the proposed proving ground, with recommendations on facilities, location(s) and financial scope.