UK robotics opportunity at over $200 billion with adoption push, says techUK
The association's central argument is that the chief obstacle is not invention but uptake and capturing the value at home will require closing that gap.
techUK has published its first robotics report, arguing that Britain has the ingredients to lead the next phase of robotics, but needs to move faster on adoption, Britain’s leading trade association said in a post. The report says the prize could be worth up to £150 billion (about $202 billion) in gross value added over the next decade if robots and smart machines are taken up more widely.
The document is, in effect, a plea to turn research strength into commercial scale. techUK says advances in artificial intelligence, sensing, computing power and advanced materials are making robots more capable, connected and autonomous, with applications already spreading across healthcare, manufacturing, agriculture and infrastructure.
Across rich economies, robotics is becoming less a question of novelty than of industrial policy. Countries that combine research, manufacturing capacity and permissive regulation are best placed to convert automation into higher productivity, better services and new business models; those that do not risk watching their inventions commercialised elsewhere.
“Something significant is happening in the world of robotics, and it is happening fast,” Rory Daniels, head of emerging technology and innovation at techUK, said in the post on the association’s website. “The UK must double down on its areas of leadership and leverage these to support innovators, accelerate deployment, and empower our most successful companies to scale and export”.
techUK’s central argument is that the chief obstacle is not invention but uptake. Many UK firms, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, have yet to deploy even off-the-shelf robotics tools, a gap the report says must close if productivity is to rise and the economic value of innovation is to be captured at home.
To make that case tangible, the report cites examples from across its membership. Siemens says AI-powered robotic picking software can identify and grasp unknown objects in milliseconds, while the Manufacturing Technology Centre says robotic systems for tunnel installation have delivered up to 40 percent productivity gains and 30 percent cost reductions, alongside safety improvements.
The report also points to Airbus Defence and Space’s work on satellite servicing, debris removal and autonomous assembly, and to Oxa, which has raised £103 million to scale autonomous vehicle technology across heavy industrial logistics, light logistics and asset monitoring.
techUK sets out nine recommendations, including treating robotics as a frontier technology, strengthening the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s robotics capacity, using public procurement to drive adoption, and making robotics an explicit priority in the government’s Scale-Up Support Service.