Brits to benefit from faster recovery from surgeries and better harvests through new backing for robotics

Patients could recover more quickly from surgery and farmers will be supported to get more produce from fields to shops, as a new network of Robotics Adoption Hubs is rolled out across the UK from today (Friday 9th October).  

Backed by £40 million, the hubs - from Newcastle and the South West to Milton Keynes and South Wales - will give businesses and public services across the country the support they need to adopt cutting-edge robotics technology.  

The innovations they will benefit from include robotic surgical assistants that can make surgery less invasive, supporting quicker recovery and helping to get patients back home faster. 

Farmers will also benefit from automated fruit picking machines - slashing the amount of time it takes to complete a harvest, and freeing agricultural workers up to focus on other jobs on their land to maximise production. 

The hubs will deliver expert advice, tailored support to help users identify which technology best suits their needs, and real-world demonstrations which allow potential users to get hands on with the newest innovations. 

Visiting the HARVEST hub in Lincoln, Minister for AI Kanishka Narayan said:### 

Quicker recovery for patients, more time for businesses to focus on the work that makes a real difference, and more food on our tables. That’s the impact cutting-edge robotics technology can have up and down the country. 

If we can harness robotics in every sector of our economy, we can speed up how we reindustrialise the UK. It really is that simple, but too often businesses and bosses don’t know where to start.