The autonomy challenge
Is highly equivalent simulation the answer to faster autonomous system development?
Simulation is only as good as its approximation to the real world… its ‘equivalence’ in technical terms.
We’ve been looking at how using intelligent simulation with a modular framework can deliver results faster to drive autonomous system development forward.
The automation to autonomy journey
As our case studies, insights and press announcements on this page highlight, Cambridge Consultants is able to explore the furthest boundaries of your ambitions. Our skills and knowledge combine with real-world application experience across multidisciplinary in-house teams. It’s a proven recipe.
Automation to autonomy: navigating the path to success
The need to apply efficiencies to overcome a lack of labor and skills has been constant since the first industrial revolution. But it’s more urgent now than ever. Thankfully, a broad breadth of automation technology is ready to propel change and boost your bottom line.
Our whitepaper explores examples from industries at varying stages of the automation to autonomy journey. We highlight the business benefits to be gained – and reveal the technologies that are crucial to achieving your desired outcome.
Moving from data to insight

CUSTOM ROBOTICS
Reducing development time and cost
The journey to autonomy via differing levels of automation can also be tracked by the movement from data to insight. At the data stage, a system collects and logs information about its performance but does not have the ability to act on it.
At the second stage – data plus process – a system will collect data and process it into real-time actionable information. It provides a level of understanding from analytics that an operator can act upon.
At the third stage – data and process plus action – a system can act completely autonomously, augmenting human endeavor to enhance efficiency and bring business benefits.
Our collective experience of this journey – enhanced by 60 years of breakthrough innovation across more than a dozen industries – is ready to get you to where you want to be, with reduced development risk, time and cost.
We’re delivering technology breakthroughs that transform markets

ESC Home Energy Management System
Energy service innovation for a low-carbon economy
- AI & Analytics
- Audio & Video
- Digital service innovation
- User Experience (UX)

The future of AI is at the edge
Driven by advances in silicon and machine learning algorithms, Edge AI is presenting vast opportunities for businesses across diverse markets.
- AI & Analytics
- Audio & Video
- Connectivity & IoT
- Electronics & ASICs
- Signal processing

VeriTherm smart thermal measurement
Digital services innovation to transform building performance
- Digital service innovation
- Sensing
- User Experience (UX)
Intelligent automation

Improving efficiencies for your customers
Intelligent automation is rich in promise, especially when it comes to transforming efficiency. To that end, we identify and deploy the most pertinent technologies in smart connectivity and mechatronics. But beyond that, our ambition is to redefine the art of the possible by creating and developing solutions that are more than the sum of their parts – because they are tailored for you from first principles.
Autonomous mobile robots navigating dynamic environments
The world is about to experience significant progress in AI-enabled autonomous mobile systems. It will open opportunities for such systems to be used in a diverse range of markets. From consumer and hospitality through to construction, hospitals and care homes, nothing will be the same again.
With mobile robots set to transcend simple material handling and transport uses into much more challenging environments, we decided to invest time to confront key remaining challenges. High on that list is navigation.

Smart vision for farming – breaking AI out of the datacentre
As pressures increase on the food supply chain, the importance of predictable yields increases. Generally, the better informed growers are, the better the price they can potentially obtain. However, manual counts struggle...
- AI & Analytics

Hitachi Vision Design
Future visions of a global society transformed
- Digital service innovation
- Innovation management
- User Experience (UX)

Analog Devices smart car park monitoring
Paving the way for low-cost, real-time sensing for smart buildings and smart cities, using machine vision and a low-cost processing platform
- AI & Analytics
- Connectivity & IoT
- Sensing

Artificial intelligence moves beyond human vision
Announcing SharpWave™, a ground-breaking AI technology that creates clear views of the real-world from a damaged or obscured moving image. SharpWave could transform numerous applications, from autonomous driving to medical imaging.
- AI & Analytics
Ground-breaking autonomy

Delivering differentiation with world firsts
Autonomy isn’t about replacing humans; it’s about making the move from insight to process and action – to augment your business and take it to the next level. Often that means creating world firsts by achieving levels of performance unmatched by competitors.
We’ve helped to nail game-changing autonomy with the world’s most dense communications network, enabling swarms of robots to collaborate. And we’ve pushed back the boundaries of low-power performance in smart connected wearables to bring intelligent automation to the masses.
Autonomy is more than software and sensors. It’s physics and math, electronics and user design, digital signal processing and embedded AI. We’ll bring these skills together with our world-class facilities to deliver differentiation that you alone will own.

Under the hood of AI-enhanced vehicle perception
Behind the scenes of the development of the EnfuseNet system, which fuses data from extremely low-cost sensors and cameras to generate high-resolution depth data – the ideal reference point for autonomous systems.
- AI & Analytics
- Sensing

Wireless breakthrough for the Ocado Smart Platform
A world-first in radio design helps transform online grocery across the globe
- Cloud/scalable systems
- Connectivity & IoT
- Digital security
- Electronics & ASICs
- Embedded software
- Mechanical engineering
- Product realisation
- Radio systems
- Robotics
- Signal processing
- Strategic advice

Mamut: The autonomous robot in the field of agritech
Mamut explores crop fields, capturing granular data on health and yield on a massive scale. By automating data capture, Mamut will bring new efficiencies to food production, enabling growers to predict and optimize yields.
- AI & Analytics
- Connectivity & IoT
- Mechanical engineering
- Robotics
- Sensing
- Tracking & location

Helping visually impaired people to navigate indoor spaces
Cambridge Consultants and Waymap have created a unique smartphone service that helps visually impaired people to navigate through complex indoor spaces, such as public transport hubs.
- AI & Analytics
- Digital service innovation
- Sensing
- Tracking & location
Synthetic data and simulation for real-world business advantage
Now, more than ever, companies need to think about innovative ways to survive and prosper. Those investing in synthetic data and simulated environments gain access to data that is prohibitively expensive to generate through real-world creation, may be dangerous to access or simply not even exist, and they will be rewarded with drastically cheaper, faster and less risky route to market.
In this whitepaper, we explore the compelling benefits of employing simulated environments. Drawing on our experience across a range of industry sectors, and exploring pertinent case studies of simulation in action, the report highlights the advantages of an agile new approach to innovation.

Niall Mottram
Head of Industry and Energy

Kieran Reynolds
Head of Smart Infrastructure

Will Addison
Group Leader, Algorithms and Analytics

Sajith Wimalaratne
Head of Automation and Autonomy

Chris Roberts
Head of Industrial Robotics

Oli Qirko
President, North America

Tim Ensor
Commercial Director

Tarika George
Program Manager and Product Strategy for Autonomy and Mobility Services