Public Funding for Milne Research Limited

**_Robotic Fabrication of Tunnel Services using Industry 4.0 for Intelligent Distributed Manufacturing (_**_RoFab-4iDM) addresses safety and productivity problems that occur when fabricating customised mechanical and electrical (M&E) installation bracketry within rail and infrastructure tunnels._ **_RoFab-4iDM will radically improve productivity and worker safety by integrating survey, inspection, machining and additive manufacturing operations within an integrated, autonomous "survey-\>design-\>manufacture-\>install" system._** **_South Korean partners will apply this technology automating metal pipework repairs within tunnels._** We will combine conventional test techniques with machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to create a digital control environment capable of assessing and designing welds, fabrication, machining and additive manufacturing without human decision-making. **_Innovating to solve real-world problems: Improve worker safety; saving UK taxpayers £16,000 per km_ tunnel built.** RoFab-4iDM has immediate application for tunnelling projects including HS2, capturing benefits of autonomous robotics, while forming tunnel structures using conventional, cost-effective, precast concrete (PCC). No other system of this kind is available. **The issue:** Rail tunnel M&E services are fitted to racking bolted to inserts cast into PCC tunnel sections. Installation tolerance build-up (due to 'roll' of PCC sections) means inserts are often out of position. Safety rules forbid welding and deter drilling new inserts inside tunnels. Therefore, many brackets need bespoke adaptions. **Our proposal:** RoFab-4iDM will combine tunnel design models with as-constructed 3D survey data, using AI to automate design and manufacture of customised bracketry. Each bracket will precisely suit the as-installed inserts, enabling fast robotic installation. * **Precisely determine as-installed position of each insert** - automated scanning rig survey creates digital 3D representation. * **Position-specific, customised standard bracket design** created by AI using digital twin. * **Fabricate bracketry offsite** -- autonomous, adaptive robotic fabrication. The project integrates proven techniques/technologies with a novel digital twin. The demonstrator will develop the digital twin integration from TRL5 to TRL7\. **Further markets:** **_Enhancing construction productivity by creating a method for off-site mass manufactured components that are cost-efficient and bespoke._** Bridging the variance between designed ideal/predicted dimensions and as-installed would accelerate wide adoption of pre-manufactured products on construction projects. **_Autonomous repair to regulated standards within hazardous environments._** Applying RoFab-4iDM technologies to other sectors will provide a solution for welding/AM within hazardous environments, avoiding disruption from having to move damaged components to a repair workshop. Future development would be to combine all stages into a **survey-\>design-\>manufacture-\>install** platform, with applications in any industry that requires assessment, repair and remanufacture of steel materials, including rail and civil nuclear decommissioning.

Our study examines the feasibility of an Electric Road System (ERS) which comprises overhead lines providing a power source to 44T electric trucks. This is the first step to removing diesel trucks from our roads by 2035, and thus meeting the Government's '10-point' net-zero plan for climate change. Industry is responding to the challenge laid down by successive climate change summits and activists like Greta Thunberg. Our world class team includes Costain, Siemens, SPL, Scania, Cambridge University, Herriot Watt and Arup. It has already proven the technology in Sweden and Germany. The next step is to demonstrate an economic and carbon friendly end to end solution. In addition, we shall look at the wider environmental impacts and public opinion. This will include road users, emergency and breakdown services. Our system needs to earn the confidence of users by being safe. We shall work alongside Highways England to create a safer road system which is easily maintainable. We shall also look to minimise disruption during construction. We shall examine opportunities afforded by 5G to develop systems that prevent congestion and accidents. We shall engage with single truck operators and fleet owners to ensure that there is a smooth transition to electric trucks. Our initial modelling shows that it offers better value than the existing diesel system. By working with road hauliers, we shall demonstrate this in terms of logistics and costs. The study will create the vision of the UK leading ERS expansion in Europe. This will be good for UK based businesses, good for UK jobs and good for the regeneration of the North. Another big winner are our school leavers and schoolchildren. We shall create links with schools to allow them to share this eco-journey. In the short term, we shall engage with them at COP26 with proposed competition winners joining us for a day at the exhibition. Longer term we shall identify skills programmes with institutions like the Doncaster based, National College for Advanced Transport & Infrastructure. Let's not forget the opportunity to retrain people in new skills which are relevant to a potential £20bn market. We wish to develop financial and transport models that prove the logistics and economics of the system. This will demand new innovative approaches by attracting private sector investment. The outcome will be win-win. The winners will include HMRC, road users, the environment, job seekers and long-term investors.

The rail industry is growing fast but passenger experience within stations is often poor, particularly for the disadvantaged. But, without engaging passengers to innovate and develop solutions, the track record of success are low. The project, led by Milne Research with Costain, IBM and Institute for Manufacturing, aims to solve this problem by developing a digital & physical industry-wide innovation infrastructure for passenger engagement and innovation – Passenger Engagement and Innovation Infrastructure (PEII). Firstly, passengers need a physical interface so we will build Innovation Hubs at London Bridge and Euston stations enabling passengers to input their ideas and problems or trial and test real innovations in-the-making such as signage systems or seat designs. Often more imporant is process innovation such as making it better and easier to find your train, book or change a ticket - even letting someone know the toilets are not working! Secondly, for industry to be able to engage with passengers at the scale necessary, unlocking the power of IT is essential. Therefore, the innovation hubs will be kitted out with interactive touchscreens, VR booths and headsets etc. The entire digital innovation infrastructure will be accessible through the web, social media and integrated into a range of travel apps. In this digital world, passengers can continue to be engaged – also rewarded and recognised for their contributions. This is an industry first and we look forward to working with all passengers to help make UK rail the best in the world.

Customer experience is enhanced it two ways, either improving services or resolving problems well. Either case cannot be achieved without engaging customers in innovation. However, for each customer-facing organisation (CFO) the cost and risks of building the necessary IT innovation infrastructure, individually, are considerable barriers. Worse still, such fragmentation is confusing for customers. The project will address these challenges by developing a single UK-wide innovation infrastructure seamlessly connecting customers to any CFO and their supply chain. The project will pilot the infrastructure on a range of CFO projects such as addressing the needs of the visually impaired passenger, better “wayfinding” at stations/platforms, reduction of disruption due to suicide attempts, innovative group ticketing e.g. families, school outings. They also want to develop customer experience enablers and digital assets including social media analysis, journey mapping, digital customer panels, extracting more insights from passenger surveys all of which will allow the industry to achieve a step- change in its ability to improve customer experience through innovation.

Recent years have seen a huge growth in the complexity of manufacturing plant, and the measurement and control systems that it uses. Process control, condition indicating, performance measuring and QC parameters are routinely measured, howver the prupose to which this data is put are only two-fold: 1) keep the plant operating within a control regime and 2) assess the condition, performance and efficiency of the operating plant and hence of the process. The project will investigate the feasibility of developing a novel automated algorithmic approach to abnormality detection (i.e. a simple and automated means of assessing whether a plant is deteriorating, drifting in terms of efficiency/performance or operating in a sub-optimal manner.