The autonomy challenge

Automation is ready to revolutionise industry. Thanks to maturing developments in robotics and artificial intelligence, unprecedented efficiency gains and rich new revenue streams are within reach. But much of the business world – faced by the challenge to achieve scale and value – has yet to realise this potential.

The automation to autonomy journey

The first step is to appreciate that there is no one-size-fits-all answer. Because each opportunity presents unique challenges, we advocate beginning with a system level approach to determine the correct level of automation, intelligence and autonomy needed. This will mean carefully weighing up cost versus benefit to ensure commercial viability. We’ll also evaluate, define and design the combination of existing, new and emerging technologies necessary to deliver the required automation.

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

Automation to autonomy: navigating the path to success 

The need to apply efficiencies to overcome a lack of labour 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 

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 endeavour 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.

How to accelerate automation and autonomous system development

How to accelerate automation and autonomous system development

The shift from data to intelligence is reliant on training data, and the more diverse your use cases, the more data you need, hence where much of the huge expense and time in the system development lies.

CC has been challenging the conventional approach to that data collection, exploring data acquisition performed in digital, simulated environments, potentially reducing cost of that data collection by up to 100 times!

We discussed how and why you could use these techniques in this interview with Business Reporter.

We’re delivering technology breakthroughs that transform markets

Carbon sequestration in action
Case study

Carbon sequestration in action

Mar 28, 2023

How is carbon sequestration measured and why is soil health important to us all? This case study reveals breakthroughs in soil measurement and validation.

  • Strategic advice
  • Sustainability
Case study

ESC Home Energy Management System

May 5, 2020

Energy service innovation for a low-carbon economy

  • AI & Analytics
  • Audio & Video
  • Digital service innovation
  • User Experience (UX)
Whitepaper

The future of AI is at the edge

Sep 17, 2020

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
Case study

VeriTherm smart thermal measurement

Dec 18, 2020

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.

How can intelligent simulation speed up development time?

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.

Due to the complexity of simulation and the range of areas it can be used in development, we have created a dedicated website outlining the approach and examples of use. Either watch the video which describes the content of the page, or take a look for yourself.

Synthetic data and simulation for real-world business advantage

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

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.

Opinion

Smart vision for farming – breaking AI out of the datacentre

Oct 15, 2019

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
Case study

Hitachi Vision Design

Aug 3, 2020

Future visions of a global society transformed

  • Digital service innovation
  • Innovation management
  • User Experience (UX)
Purina Petivity Litter Box Monitor
Case study

Purina Petivity

Jun 9, 2023

How AI-powered connected products are enabling Purina to grow its business for good

  • Audio & Video
  • Dispense
Press release

Artificial intelligence moves beyond human vision

Dec 3, 2018

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

Valuable opportunity sits on the horizon for the autonomous electricity grid

Valuable opportunity sits on the horizon for the autonomous electricity grid

With the increasing operational instability and cost of the electricity grid, autonomy may become a necessary solution.

In this article, we explore the opportunities and technical challenges associated with an autonomous grid and talk through a range of key challenges and approaches necessary to make it a success.

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 maths, 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. 

Is highly equivalent simulation the answer?

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.

Opinion

Under the hood of AI-enhanced vehicle perception

Aug 11, 2020

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
Case study

Wireless breakthrough for the Ocado Smart Platform

Mar 31, 2021

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
Press release

Mamut: The autonomous robot in the field of agritech

Mar 11, 2019

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
Press release

Helping visually impaired people to navigate indoor spaces

Dec 16, 2019

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

Niall Mottram

Head of Industrial 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