A UK company that makes modular robots that can be rebuilt for different jobs and are designed to work in places such as the CERN particle accelerator.
Ross Robotics is a UK company that makes modular robots. Modular means the robot is built from standard parts that snap together, so the same basic machine can be rebuilt for different jobs. A 2015 profile in a Siemens blog describes the company's founder, Philip Norman, calling it "the world's first and only modular robotic system". The key idea is a connector that carries both power and data in one plug-and-twist action, so people who are not robotics experts can change or repair the robot by swapping modules. The company has also developed traction devices, based on nature, that help robots move through thick undergrowth, climb stairs and swim.
The company was co-founded by Philip Norman, who invented and developed the robotic platform. He describes himself as a builder, caricaturist, ceramicist, children's book illustrator and inventor, which gives a sense of the unusual mix of skills behind the company. The Siemens article says the aim is to change how specialised service robots are made, by letting companies assemble application-specific robots from standard parts. A later article from the Science and Technology Facilities Council describes Ross Robotics as a privately held UK company specialising in modular robotics, with a goal of commercialising the platform. We did not find a separate mission statement.
In the UK, the company was selected to be incubated for 12 months at the STFC CERN Business Incubation Centre on the Harwell Campus in Oxfordshire. Its robots have been developed with CERN, the European particle physics laboratory, which adapted a heavily modified robot to inspect equipment in the tunnels of the Large Hadron Collider. The STFC article says its robots are built to cope with strong radiation and magnetic fields, and that one was demonstrated at the Chernobyl nuclear power station. These sources do not give a head office address, so we can only say the company is UK-registered and had a base linked to Harwell at the time.
The sources say nothing about the number of staff or the day-to-day culture, so we do not describe either. What they do show is a small, inventive engineering firm that works with some of the most demanding customers in science and nuclear clean-up. Mr Norman used Siemens Solid Edge design software to design the parts, so the work includes detailed mechanical design as well as testing in the field.
Robotics companies of this kind use mechanical designers, electronics and software engineers, test engineers who prepare robots for harsh environments, and people who work with customers such as research laboratories and nuclear operators. Interests in engineering, physics, materials and problem solving all feed into the work. The evidence we found is several years old, so check the company's website to see where it stands today.
Website: www.rossrobotics.co.uk
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