Manufacturing automation is an expanding field concerned with the delivery of high-value engineering technologies and services globally. The highest value areas of automation relate to the more difficult to automation applications, for example many occurring in aerospace and precision automotive applications. Industry sources estimate that in a typical aerospace manufacturing plant the costs associated with manual operations and the inspect-adjust-rework activity could cost millions of pounds across the UK. Automation in various forms has the potential to reduce this inefficiency but also has the potential to do great damage to quality if applied incorrectly. Whilst automation has been applied across many sectors of industry, the spectrum of applications has rarely pushed the boundaries of research. Safe and limited solutions are often the norm. The high value manufacturing industries have applied limited automation because of the highly skilled nature of the finishing, inspection and assembly work inherent in the manufacturing processes. These processes are difficult to automate because of minor variation in components that influence interaction between processing equipment and component being processed. In addition, parts are often made from expensive materials, with many parts requiring careful handling in a high added value state (e.g. fan blades). Whilst humans can accommodate variation at certain levels they often introduce variation by virtue of being human (e.g. through lack of concentration). These high value industries need an advanced kind of automation that delivers the precision of computer controlled machinery with the adaptability of a human operator, but with 24/7 capability and 100% quality performance and at reasonable cost and operational speed. When the variation in the product caused by variation in human performance has been removed by deployment of intelligent automated systems, it will be possible to gather better data about design for manufacture and feed this back into product development in a systematic manner.Intelligent Automation is a convergence of human-machine modelling, digital manufacturing, knowledge generation and learning with intelligent devices. The aim is to develop a generic process and product modelling and deployment capability that can radically impact on current limitations experienced within industries that rely on substantial input from human skill, expertise and adaptability.This EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Intelligent Automation will have a platform activity and two closely related and integrated research themes. The platform activity will emphasise 'Fast Track' projects for Early Win outcomes closely linked to the Tier 1 industrial partner expectations. Adventure projects will also be undertaken, aimed at more speculative high risk research. A small amount of Policy and Standards influencing work will be carried out. The first flagship research theme is: Modelling and Deployment for Right First Time Manufacturing, where extensive computer based modelling of intelligent automation systems will be undertaken to establish greater confidence during the design phase through to digital deployment and on to real deployment and operation. The second flagship theme is: Humans and Intelligent Automation Systems, where human skill is examined and how this influences difficult to automate industrial processes/tasks. The area of humans and robots sharing the same work space will also be investigated.

Metal processing is a vital component of manufacturing. Manufacturing is the third largest sector in the UK economy and in 2010 manufacturing in the United Kingdom accounted for 8.2% of the workforce and 12% (£150 billion in gross value added) of the country's national output. However, manufacturing's share of nominal GDP has fallen from over 22 per cent in 1990 and there is a clear trend in low value, high volume manufacturing moving to developing countries while in the UK the higher technology areas generate the better gross value added returns. The future growth of the sector is dependent on its ability to design and make the high value products. In large part, it is the high quality knowledge base and skilled technical workforce that make for a successful transformation from a resource and labour-intensive to a knowledge-intensive sector and ensure that high technology metal industries flourish in the UK. An important aspect of supporting high-value manufacturing in the UK is the PhD training of young researchers. However, it has been pointed out by many companies in the UK that the lack of well-trained materials engineers remains a concern for high value manufacturing industry. Indeed, in 2013 the UK Border Agency identified "metallurgist" as one of the 10 most wanted job titles in the Codes of Practice for Skilled workers. In this proposal, the Universities of Leicester, Birmingham and Nottingham seek funding to establish an EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Innovative Metal Processing (CIMP) with substantial support from industrial partners. Over the lifetime of the CIMP we will train over 87 PhD researchers with the combination of experimental, analytical, computational, technology management and transferable skills that are needed to build industrial innovation. The Centre will recruit students from different disciplines and provide them with coherent knowledge of a range of metal processing technologies and develop their expertise in solving challenging and industrially relevant problems so that they can be deployed by industry and become future leaders. The overall emphasis of the CDT's training programme will be on producing well-rounded leaders of the future, combining critical expertise in their discipline areas with a well-honed professional acumen, culminating in the ability to explore the wider context of their work and its potential impact, communicate their research to a range of different audiences, understand the commercial world and the applications of research, and work effectively with a range of partners both within and outside the academic community. The main research aims are: (1) to provide a deep understanding of the physical phenomena during metal processing, (2) to develop analytical and computational models for metal processing, (3) to design and optimise reliable manufacturing processes to accelerate product development and (4) to design new processes for novel materials. CIMP will build on the relationships the universities already have with our industrial partners and augment those relationships over the longer term by building a shared vision of researcher and continuing professional training and developing a deeper understanding of the challenges that drive innovation and impact in metal processing. Our marketing and recruiting activities will promote the profile of the metal processing industry in the UK and help attract a talented workforce. Our Summer School will also have an outreach activity "targeting" secondary school students to engage them in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects and especially to inspire women and girls to pursue (STEM) as pathways to exciting and fulfilling careers.

The purpose of the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) Engineering Doctorate Centre is to accelerate the adoption and utilisation of new high-value manufacturing technologies within UK industry by bridging the identified gap between basic research and technology commercialisation in this area. This will be achieved through partnership between university research partners (the University of Nottingham, Loughborough University and the University of Birmingham) and founding MTC industrial members (Rolls-Royce, Airbus, Aero Engine Controls) through co-sponsorship and co-supervision of cohorts of Engineering Doctorate Research Engineers to tackle key research challenges in Net Shape Manufacturing, Advanced Tooling and Fixturing and Intelligent Automation. The 12,000 sqm purpose-built 25M MTC building at Ansty, Warwickshire will provide a hub for the researchers, who will benefit from investment in large-scale research equipment and access to key research and technical staff. Research Engineers will benefit from a carefully constructed formal training programme combining advanced technical skills with management/professional development training and contextual awareness. This is to ensure that Research Engineers are not only equipped with detailed hands-on knowledge of the latest advanced manufacturing methods and approaches but also an understanding of how their research fits within the value chain so as to achieve optimal solutions.