Summary

The Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund’s Robotics and AI challenge, through Innovate UK, (as part of UK Research and Innovation), is collaborating with The Royal Navy, Oil & Gas Technology Centre, BP, and the Oil & Gas Authority. Together they will invest up to £6 million, from a cross government and industry joint fund, in collaborative business led projects.

Individuals can apply to join a 5-day collaborative workshop to develop proposals for autonomous subsea systems that can significantly improve mission duration, sensing and communications.

Participants are sought to develop collaborative projects in next generation autonomous subsea systems which improve levels of autonomy, sensor miniaturisation, mission planning, monitoring, communications, navigation, data management, and operations together with improved endurance in the water column up to 3000 metres deep.

The Challenge

The challenge is to develop Next Generation Subsea Autonomous System technologies which are modular in design with common interfaces and open architectures that make trusted unmanned operations the standard approach in areas such as off-shore energy, aquafarming, deep sea mineral exploration and maritime defensive security operations.

Competition Details

In this competition individuals can apply to take part, on behalf of their organisation, in a 5-day collaborative residential workshop known as the Innovation Lab. It will run in April 2020. The attendees will form project teams and work together to develop collaborative proposals for research and innovation projects that deliver concept demonstrators.

The aim of the Innovation Lab is to generate innovative and commercially viable new ideas.

The process and activities within the Innovation Lab may be unconventional, challenging and unexpected. By submitting an application you are agreeing to take part fully, enthusiastically and constructively.

We will take a portfolio approach to selecting candidates for the Innovation Lab. We want to include a broad range of disciplines, technologies and approaches that will bring together people who would not normally work together, ensuring the equality, diversity and inclusion of participants.

The project proposals created during the event can be for industrial research or experimental development leading to the development of a concept demonstrator. Your final proposal must focus on solutions that:

• aim to make autonomous unmanned future systems the standard for offshore subsea operations including navigating, sensing, and communicating processed information.
• operate in an enhanced collaborative inter-platform environment with other manned and autonomous platforms all operating within the water column up to 3000m.
• operate in environments such as off-shore energy, other areas of the blue economy, defence, and ideally in more than one.
• operate safely, efficiently, over long periods of time without human intervention and without maintenance
• be modular in design with common interfaces and open architectures, and following all appropriate industrial standards and system engineering principles

Your final proposal must also:

• quantify how the solution can be commercialised
• include testing and demonstration in realistic scenarios or environments during and upon completion of the project
• address regulatory or safety issues and constraints

After the Innovation Lab project teams will have 4 weeks to finalise their proposals before submitting them for assessment through a follow-up competition. Only Innovation Lab participants will be eligible to submit final proposals.

The project you design at the Innovation Lab is expected to have total costs between £1.5 million and £3 million.

Other competition briefing events:

If you are not able to attend this London, face to face event, please register for one of the options below.

23 January 2020: Live, online webcast

30 January 2020: Glasgow

Outline Agenda (draft – timings to finalise)

9:30 Registration Opens

10:00 Welcome and Overview from Challenge Director

10:15 Keynote from UKRI or UK DSC

10:30 Competition Overview & Scope

11:00 Networking Coffee Break

11:20 Application Process Briefing

12:00 Close

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion