Industrial Robots-as-a-Service (IRaaS) - Resilient and responsive manufacturing systems enabled by rapidly deployable mobile robots
Lead Research Organisation:
UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM
Department Name: Mechanical Engineering
Abstract
Current automation is reliant on large volume applications, with predictable market demands and stable product variants. For companies in emerging and global markets, it is difficult to adopt automation and remain responsive to market changes; as a result companies that need to be responsive are forced to adopt more expensive manual approaches, or rely on off-shore manufacturing in lower wage economies. To address this, UK manufacturing needs more responsive automation.
This project will investigate means to reduce the effort of deploying and repurposing generic off-the-shelf robots and mobile autonomous platforms, and provide them with the ability to work in teams with people and other robots. This will provide the foundation to use Industrial Robots-as-a-Service (IRaaS).
The IRaaS model will allow manufacturers to quickly respond to meet the demands of changing markets, dynamically organise work to maximise their productivity, and be less exposed to any sudden shocks and system failures. This will augment the capability of the skilled human workforce who will be enabled by automation that is responsive to human-defined production needs.
The IRaaS model will also bring the key benefits inherent to product service systems. From a reliability perspective, the system will be resilient as malfunctioning robots can easily be replaced; from a financial perspective, the model will remove the need for large capital investment by enabling subscription based services; and from an environmental perspective, it will enable sustainable manufacturing concepts such as repair, re-use and re-manufacture, eliminating the waste and cost of decommissioning monolithic automation equipment.
This project will investigate means to reduce the effort of deploying and repurposing generic off-the-shelf robots and mobile autonomous platforms, and provide them with the ability to work in teams with people and other robots. This will provide the foundation to use Industrial Robots-as-a-Service (IRaaS).
The IRaaS model will allow manufacturers to quickly respond to meet the demands of changing markets, dynamically organise work to maximise their productivity, and be less exposed to any sudden shocks and system failures. This will augment the capability of the skilled human workforce who will be enabled by automation that is responsive to human-defined production needs.
The IRaaS model will also bring the key benefits inherent to product service systems. From a reliability perspective, the system will be resilient as malfunctioning robots can easily be replaced; from a financial perspective, the model will remove the need for large capital investment by enabling subscription based services; and from an environmental perspective, it will enable sustainable manufacturing concepts such as repair, re-use and re-manufacture, eliminating the waste and cost of decommissioning monolithic automation equipment.
Organisations
- UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM (Lead Research Organisation)
- Robots of London (Project Partner)
- Vikaso Ltd. (Project Partner)
- Sunamp (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Cambrian Intelligence (Project Partner)
- AI Vision Robotics (Project Partner)
- Airbus Group Limited(Airbus Group Ltd) (Project Partner)
- Leidos Security & Automation Limited (Project Partner)
- Cycles Maximus Ltd (Project Partner)
- Measurement Solutions Ltd. (Project Partner)
- RAR UK Automation Ltd. (Project Partner)
- True Position Robotics Ltd (Project Partner)
- Prospedia Capital (Project Partner)
- Antobot Ltd (Project Partner)
- GKN AEROSPACE SERVICES LIMITED (Project Partner)
- Manufacturing Technology Centre (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- myenergi Ltd. (Project Partner)
- Tepeo Ltd (Project Partner)
- BARA (British Automation & Robot Assoc) (Project Partner)
- Toyota Motor Manufacturing (Project Partner)
Publications
Callari T
(2025)
Reframing the narrative of workers' agency in Industry 5.0 manufacturing through reskilling, upskilling and craftsmanship
in Journal of Workplace Learning
Pashupathy P
(2026)
Dual Control for Active Estimation and Path Planning in the Automation of Robotic Assembly Tasks
in IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering
Related Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Award Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EP/V050966/1 | 30/06/2021 | 29/04/2024 | £1,436,069 | ||
| EP/V050966/2 | Transfer | EP/V050966/1 | 30/04/2024 | 29/06/2026 | £486,647 |
| Description | The project has investigated the requirements to enable industrial robots to be easily used as services that can be quickly deployed and re-deployed for different assembly, handling, and inspection processes. This requirements have been translated into a reference architecture that utilises vision based object recognition and pose estimation to create robot programmes that can robustly operate in previously unseen environments and recognise parts, tools, and environmental constraints based on learned models. This allows industrial robots to operate in less structured environments typically found in smaller, lower volume production settings. It also reduces setup times for robotic systems from days/hours to hours/minutes, depending on the complexity of the task. The second key innovation of the created IRaaS (Industrial Robots as a Service) architecture allows programmes to be quickly generated based on object references rather than based on fixed spatial locations and orientations. This allows robots to be used in settings where fixing the location and orientation is challenging or uneconomic, making industrial robots easier to deploy and re-deploy even through remote programming e.g. by a service provider. |
| Exploitation Route | A number of key outputs have been created: - vision based localisation of objects - robust, goal-oriented alignment of parts - IRaaS reference architecture These outputs have high potential to use as part of a new industrial robotic service offering that provides a strong case for impact acceleration funding and further industrialisation e.g. via our partners in the High Value Manufacturing Catapult. |
| Sectors | Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology |
| URL | https://iraas.net/ |
| Description | Co-AIMS: Research Hub on Collaborative AI for Manufacturing Sustainability |
| Amount | £12,073,176 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | UKRI1890 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2025 |
| End | 10/2032 |