Centre for Robotic Autonomy in Demanding and Long-lasting Environments (CRADLE)

CRADLE将Jacobs在应用机器人和自主系统（RAS）方面的工业经验与曼彻斯特大学在该领域的研究专业知识相结合，以创建一个国际领先的长期可持续发展的合作研究中心。我们对CRADLE的愿景是，它将为太空、核能、能源发电和城市基础设施等要求苛刻的环境提供新颖和变革性的RAS技术，使这项技术所承诺的好处在英国工业的各个领域得以实现。虽然近年来机器人系统取得了重大进展，但真正自主的机器人和智能机器将对英国工业产生最大影响，这仍然是一个重大障碍，特别是在复杂，苛刻和严格监管的环境中。在这方面，不正确的决定和不适当的行动可能产生严重后果，例如放射性物质的释放或高价值设备的损失。我们已经看到，RAS组件的增量扩展不足以克服这一自主障碍，并认为需要进行一步改变：-创建一个以自主性为中心的框架，将许多独立的机器人组件（包括传感器，执行器，软件和安全系统）汇集在一起;-解决该框架内特定组件中存在的影响整个自主系统可靠性，弹性和可信度的关键研究差距;以及-澄清和嵌入，广泛的最终用户，业务和监管限制，必须在这个框架内容纳长期的自主权。CRADLE一直以未来的行业需求为指导，并解决了RAS发展的主要研究障碍。此外，CRADLE还将创造一条影响途径，使低TRL RAS技术得以开发，然后转化为安全、可靠和创新的解决方案，可用于解决一系列苛刻环境中的长期行业和社会问题。我们将专注于允许RAS在多个行业领域部署的通用技术，并将针对特定用例，使该技术能够在对工业供应链特别重要的行业中得到展示。这些用例将来自Jacobs现有能力的领域，例如核能、空间和城市基础设施，但我们也将探索日益增长的兴趣和机会，例如清洁能源发电、可持续交通、医疗保健和安全。

CRADLE brings together the industrial experience that Jacobs have 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. Our vision for CRADLE is that it will deliver novel and transformational RAS technology for demanding environments, such as space, nuclear, energy generation and urban infrastructure, allowing the benefits promised by this technology to be realised across wide sectors of UK industry. Whilst there has been significant progress made in robotic systems in recent years, the step to truly autonomous robotics and smart machines, which will deliver the greatest impact to UK industry, remains a significant barrier, particularly in complex, demanding and heavily regulated environments. Here, incorrect decisions and inappropriate actions can have significant consequences, such as the release of radioactive materials or the loss of high value equipment. We have seen that incremental extensions to RAS components have not been sufficient to surmount this autonomy barrier and believe that a step change is required to:- create an autonomy-focussed framework that brings together the many independent robotic components that includes sensors, actuators, software and safety systems;- address key research gaps that exist in the specific components within this framework that affect the reliability, resilience and trustworthiness of the overall autonomous system; and- clarify, and embed, the wide range of end-user, business and regulatory constraints that must be accommodated within this framework for long-lasting autonomy.CRADLE has been guided by future industry needs and addresses major research obstacles to RAS development. Furthermore, CRADLE will create a pathway to impact that enables low-TRL RAS technologies to be developed and then translated into safe, reliable and innovative solutions that can be deployed to address long-term industry and societal problems in a range of demanding environments. We will focus on generic technologies that will allow RAS to be deployed across multiple industry sectors, and we will target specific use cases that will enable this technology to be demonstrated in sectors of particular importance to the industrial supply chain. These use cases will be drawn from sectors where Jacobs have existing capability, such as nuclear, space and urban infrastructure, but we will also explore areas of growing interest and opportunity, such as clean energy generation, sustainable transportation, healthcare and security.