UK robotics hubs to drive adoption of new tech

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The hubs will get £40m to offer advice and support to businesses and public services looking to use the latest technologies and switch to automation.

One, in Newcastle, will help healthcare providers adopt robotic-assisted surgery while another, in Lincoln, will assist the farming and food industries with innovations such as automated fruit-picking machines.

AI and Robotics Minister Kanishka Narayan said harnessing robotics "in every sector of our economy" could "speed up how we reindustrialise the UK".

On a visit to Lincoln Institute for Agri-Food Technology to announce a new £6.3m HARVEST hub, Narayan said he was "confident" British innovation "can stand the test internationally if we keep up the future of technology".

He was shown automated robots moving along strawberry crops, another moving across a ploughed field and a third shooting pulses of concentrated light on to soil to boil and kill the cells of a weed.

"Farmers are really struggling to be able to find workers to pick fruit when they need them and in some cases that means a big change in the cost, and so clearly that element of farming has changed and the question is how we can support our farmers to stay in business," he said.

"I've witnessed first hand, even in combine harvesters and robotics in dairy farming, how much of a change that's made in British farming by this technology and I'm hoping today's announcement will make a big contribution to that."

Professor Simon Pearson MBE of the Lincoln Institute for Agri-Food Technology, part of the University of Lincoln, said the hub would introduce the new technologies to the farming and food sectors.

"Industry needs robots to drive productivity, whether it's on farms or food factory, so the hub will bring the food and robot companies together," he said.

"Farming is changing at a phenomenal rate and it's very difficult with profitability, labour access and climate issues and these technologies won't resolve those issues but they will help.

"We have world-class food and farming companies in the hub, including Dyson Farming, and to be world-class you've got to be internationally competitive and if we don't do it in Lincolnshire other countries will do it."

The eight new Robotics Adoption Hubs are:

As well as the eight hubs, the programme will provide £2.5m to support 12 projects to develop practical robotics training and apprenticeships, including the Port and Logistics Robotics Adoption Programme in Hull.

Listen to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North.

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