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Raico Labs) Statement of Need 1 Robotics and AI Collaboration Laboratory (RAICo Labs) Statement of Need 1 Robotics and AI Collaboration Laboratory (RAICo Labs) Statement of Need Submitted to UKRI 19 Feb 2021 A) Ambition and Vision i. Vision The vision is to create a robotics and AI (RAI) Collaboration Laboratory (RAICo Labs) in West Cumbria that, combined with a focused R&D programme, is able to: a) Develop RAI technologies able to address the NDA’s ‘grand challenge’ aim: “A 50% reduction in decommissioning activities carried out by humans in hazardous environments by 2030” and bring about benefits of cost and schedule reduction to the UK taxpayer. b) Build viable innovation pipelines for RAI, through mid-TRL research and innovation, that will enable positive impact across multiple sectors. c) Establish the UK as an international lead in the R&D and use of RAI in challenging environments. d) Create the skills and socio-economic environment that allows West Cumbria to Level Up and become a hub for RAI entrepreneurship, delivering economic success and playing a leading role in establishing a vibrant network of world class applied RAI that shape the future UK economy and create export opportunities. This SoN is authored by the Robotics and AI in Nuclear (RAIN) hub on behalf of NDA, Sellafield Ltd (SL), UKAEA, NNL and University of Manchester (UoM) and is supported by RAIN’s significant experience in robotics R&D, which has delivered 10 active deployments across active sites in UK, Slovenia and Chernobyl and the first fully autonomous robot on the Sellafield Site (HMG’s 2020 R&D Roadmap). Now we intend to accelerate. Funding has been secured to extend the RAIN programme for 12-months. SL has created a new strategic post, Head of RAI, and invested to co-locate key robotics projects in a temporary home in Whitehaven. Starting with nuclear decommissioning and waste management across the NDA’s Estate, RAICo Labs will extend rapidly to other sectors, complementing national facilities including RACE, NNL, Robotarium, NOC, Turing Institute, Catapults, university labs and private initiatives. This supports the West Cumbria local government “Reboot” strategy and delivers a sector and technology transforming goal that will impact many remote-from-London regions. ii. Quality For RAICo Labs, quality means research quality and innovation quality. The UK is an international leader in nuclear operations, ranging from decommissioning through to new reactor builds and has a strong academic base in RAI following investments in the Oxford Robotics Institute, Edinburgh Centre for Robotics, UKAEA’s RACE and the Turing Institute. This has been strengthened through translational funding, such as UKRI’s ISCF Robots for a Safer World programme, which included £25M to establish the RAIN and NCNR nuclear robotics hubs, which have leveraged £50M. RAIN and NCNR have published 400 articles in leading journals and conferences in 3 years, helping to establish the UK as a world-leader in nuclear robotics R&D. RAICo Labs will provide Submitted by UKAEA on behalf of NDA, UKAEA, SL, NNL, University of Manchester Robotics and AI Collaboration Laboratory (RAICo Labs) Statement of Need 2 the facilities, including state-of-the-art equipment and full-scale mock-ups, to enable this research to progress further and deliver innovation through collaboration with national laboratories, the supply chain and end-users: from 10 active deployments per year now to 10,000 active deployments per year in 2030. RAICo Labs will impact other sectors, building on research excellence arising from UKRI’s ORCA and FAIR-Space hubs and the Trustworthy Autonomous Systems programme. RAICo Labs will address research topics that are vital for robotics to progress beyond the laboratory and provide re-usable solutions: including verification and validation, human-robot interaction, standardisation, remote inspection, remote handling and digital twins. Aerial, ground and aquatic robots are now beginning to be used in the nuclear industry, however, to achieve their full potential, such technologies need to be deployed routinely and with increased autonomy and data management. RAIN has made progress with the CARMA, autonomous radiation scanning robot, which was described as being ‘world-class research’ in HMG’s 2020 R&D Roadmap, but considerably more research is required. In handling and manipulation, robots are far from replicating the fluid skill of humans. To deliver transformational change, autonomous handling and processing is needed, which requires improved sensing (inc. radhard), dextrous manipulation of tooling and the environment, contextual awareness using deep digital twins and careful insertion into a cautious, highly regulated culture. iii. Step Change Robotics has led to step changes in other industries is now sufficiently developed to address some of the UK’s decommissioning grand challenges. However, translation of the technology into this industry is hampered by limited research capability in West Cumbria. The only R&D facilities in West Cumbria are: UoM Dalton Cumbrian Facility; NNL Workington Lab; R&D on the SL site and some R&D within the supply chain. None of these provide the collaborative environment, equipment, resource or test facilities required for RAI to transform nuclear operations. RAICo Labs will bring people together (public and private sector, industry and academia) by permanent or transient co-location to build and maintain viable innovation pipelines by demonstrating and transferring, recording and tracking benefits (safety, productivity, environmental, financial, socio-economic). RAI R&D activity in West Cumbria currently is fewer than 50 people, with about 1000 SL/NNL employees engaged in “current technology” remote operations: the expectant customer. RAICo Labs will provide a custom-built test facility to allow robots to be designed, tested and benchmarked, prior to training for active deployment acting as a catalyst, developing technology and delivering innovation that improves existing and future operations and generates spin-outs. The nuclear industry is risk averse and is slow to introduce new technologies. Through the proposed cross-sector collaboration, RAICo Labs will embed positive disruption within the nuclear decommissioning industry and beyond. Submitted by UKAEA on behalf of NDA, UKAEA, SL, NNL, University of Manchester Robotics and AI Collaboration Laboratory (RAICo Labs) Statement of Need 3 B) Strategic Importance and Context i. Strategic Drivers Prompted by political leadership including PM May and PM Johnson, UK academia has seen significant investment in RAI capabilities, allowing considerable advancements to be made (e.g. UKRI’s Robots for a Safer World and Robotics for a More Resilient Future). This has allowed the UK to begin to be considered a world-leader in RAI. However, the translation of this technology into industry/commercial success needs to accelerate and deepen. Recently, the need for RAICo Labs has been signposted in the Robotics Growth Partnership’s RAS2020 Strategy Update for BEIS SoS (“Living Labs”) and letter to No. 10 “The case for building a national digital twin” and the UKRI’s National Smart Machines Programme. Furthermore, the UK R&D RoadMap July 2020 states: “take greater account of place-based outcomes in how we make decisions on R&D in the UK”, and, “...longer-term ambitions to put the UK at the forefront of wholly new sectors... such as AI and Robotics”. With the aim of enabling research, supporting technology translation and delivering impact to challenges of national importance, RAICo Labs directly supports EPSRC and UKRI ISCF strategy. Furthermore, RAICo Labs will provide infrastructure and capability in areas of research (nuclear and robotics) that the UK has considerable strength and the potential to be world leading for the long term. Robotics across the NDA estate needs improved coordination to maximise the impact of delivery. RAICo Labs will deliver engagement and collaboration across all TRL stages, from academia and national labs through to supply chain and end users. “NDA, the UK strategic authority for nuclear decommissioning and owner of the UK’s nuclear legacy sees RAIN as essential for reducing the cost and scheduling of decommissioning while at the same time improving worker safety. The development of RAICo is entirely consistent with NDA’s published Strategy, and its new Strategy to be published in March 2021. RAICo Labs is fully supported by NDA”, Adrian Simper, NDA’s Strategy & Technology Director. Submitted by UKAEA on behalf of NDA, UKAEA, SL, NNL, University of Manchester Robotics and AI Collaboration Laboratory (RAICo Labs) Statement of Need 4 Timing is critical: RAICo Labs needs to be open within 3 years to support the NDA mission and enable decommissioning that meets the 2030 aims: 20% cost reduction on £99-225Bn liability, 50% fewer human interventions. Location is important: West Cumbria has areas of significant deprivation and unemployment. The predicted Covid legacy is 10 years of negative growth. Pat Graham, CEO of Copeland Council said “RAICo Labs is the ideal anchor tenant for Industrial Solutions Hub (ISH) to energise the Reboot strategy”. The West Cumbria economy is dependent on SL and its national supply chain. Through the implementation of RAI, the NDA liability is expected to decrease and this will require a step- change in skillsets to deliver the mission. The capability to increase RAI skills in West Cumbria does not presently exist. The forecasted increase in opportunities developed by RAI in alternative sectors, will create a legacy of high value design, manufacture and operation of robotics jobs, all of which can be supported within RAICo Labs and contribute to the West Cumbrian economy. ii. National Context In addition to the facilities in existing university laboratories, RAICo Labs compliments larger scale capabilities, such as the nuclear fusion robotic facilities at RACE in Oxfordshire, manufacturing at NAMRC and the MTC. In particular, RAICo Labs offers the unique ability to take technologies, tested in small-scale facilities, to full-scale trials and benchmarking in direct collaboration with organisations in the supply chain and nuclear end-users.
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