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The robots are just one area of focus for a £65m investment, aimed at ‘making the UK the global home for future technologies in battery development, robotics and advanced healthcare treatments’.
Universities, research organisations and businesses will use £15m funding to develop the robots, which could complete tasks that are either too hazardous or impossible for human workers to do.
The robotics investment will also aim to address new problems resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. Potential developments include remote-operated robots that make contact-free deliveries or move hospital beds.
The Robotics for a Safer World challenge has already created nearly 300 jobs in the UK and around the world, and the funding is expected to increase the number of high-skilled roles and attract more businesses to the robotics sector.
Nearly £44m of the money, made available through today’s (10 September) extension of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, will be allocated to the government’s Faraday Battery Challenge. The funding will help develop high-performance batteries for electric vehicles and wind turbines, which could also one day be adapted for new technologies such as electric aeroplanes.
The money will also help complete the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre in Coventry, creating 100 high-skilled jobs. Automotive, rail and aerospace organisations will have access to a ‘unique’ battery production facility ‘combining manufacturing, experimentation and innovation’.
Faraday Battery Challenge director Tony Harper said: “In order for batteries to play their full environmental and economic role in achieving ‘net zero’, we need to deploy at scale and build supply chains for today’s technology, shift from strong potential to commercial dominance in a new generation of batteries and continue to build world-class scientific capability to sustain us into the future.”
A further £6.5m will be allocated to the Advanced Therapy Treatment Centre network.
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