The Made Smarter Innovation programme has opened the Industry Ready Robotics and Automation funding call, aimed at supporting the development of industry-ready solutions for deployment within manufacturing production environments. The competition is open now until Wednesday 5th April 2023, 11:00am.
The funding call is aimed at late-stage higher Technology Readiness Level (TRL) developments, and projects will be able to run for up to 12 months culminating in trials within a production environment. Projects must be an innovative development or novel application of robotics and automation that overcomes a technical barrier, and can span both hardware solutions such as fixed or mobile robots, as well as software innovations to improve system integration.
Improving the flexibility, agility and future re-deployment opportunities will be a key innovation theme, with project applications encouraged in topics such as modularity, no-code programming, and optimised gripper design. Development of innovative solutions to maximise the potential of collaborative robots (co-bots) as well as to improve the safety of Human Machine Interface (HMI) will also be within the scope of the call.
Applications will need to demonstrate clear post-project scalability and routes to commercialisation of the solution beyond initial deployment. It is envisaged that projects of up to £4m will be eligible to apply, with collaborations comprising multiple manufacturers and technology developers encouraged.
You can find more details about the competition here.
If you would like to discuss a potential bid, or find out more about FDF’s work in this area, please contact Tanya.