Kawasaki Industries visits Edinburgh Centre for Robotics

On Monday 18th May, the Centre was delighted to welcome a delegation from Kawasaki Heavy Industries, to discuss developments and teaming opportunities in Marine Robotics. The visit was a direct result of Professor David Lane's recent keynote speech on 22 April at the Japanese Embassy London's Japan-UK Robotics Seminar http://www.uk.emb-japan.go.jp/en/event/2015/06/robotics.html 

This in turn a development from Professors Lane and Vijayakumar's visit to Japan with UK Trade and Investment in February (http://hamlyn.doc.ic.ac.uk/uk-ras/what-you-see-all-there-reflections-5-d...). Both Japan and the UK have developed and are implementing robotics innovation strategies driven from the highest levels in Government through the Robotics Revolution Realisation Council (Japan): http://japan.kantei.go.jp/97_abe/actions/201501/23article3.html and the RAS Leadership Council and SIG Special Interest Group (UK) forming one of the 8 Great Technologies:  https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/robotics-and-autonomous-syste...

The delegation was led by Mr. Hodaka Shimizu, Managing Director, Kawasaki Heavy Industries UK, Ltd accompanied by Mr. Minehiko Mukaida Senior Staff (Manager), Underwater Products Development Section, Submarine Design Dept. Ship & Offshore Structure Company and Dr. Tetsuya Kubota, Deputy Senior Manager, Control System Dept, System Technology Development Cente, Corporate Technology Division both Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd, Japan.

A cordial meeting including presentations and discussion of technologies for marine robotics took place. Kawasaki have an established pedigree including development of the Marine Bird AUV with underwater docking. The Ocean Systems Laboratory also has a long pedigree in these areas, and has led the now-concluding EU FP7 project PANDORA, to increase the robustness of autonomy in for subsea inspection repair and maintenance in the oilfield http://persistentautonomy.com

We look forward to developing further joint activities, and to shortly welcoming Kawasaki as one of the new partners in the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics