Jenny Read, program director at the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), tells Audrow Nash about a roughly £50 million program to advance robot dexterity hardware and the organizations working on it.
Founded in 2023, ARIA funds speculative research tied to a potential public benefit. Its program directors choose problem areas that seem important but underfunded, where ARIA can add more value than it would in a crowded field. Read says her program’s budget is about £50 million, with around 26 organizations expected to receive funding.
Read expects progress in AI to make robot bodies a more significant constraint. Her program focuses on dexterity, especially tasks such as assembly, connecting cables, and handling materials that bend or stretch. She says current actuators can bring tradeoffs in efficiency, weight, and backdrivability, while tactile sensing could help robots handle objects more precisely.
Read argues that robot bodies and control strategies are often designed separately, unlike in biology, where they develop together. Her program supports research into co-design: using simulation to explore how body shapes and control policies might work well as a pair. Researchers will also work on making simulations better reflect real-world performance, including with deformable objects.
The program plans to fund about 26 groups, including companies and academic labs, with projects typically lasting two to four years. Examples include Plastics, which is developing electro-elastic actuators, DZP Technologies, which is working on flexible electronics, and Wave Drives, which is developing a magnetic linear actuator. Some recipients will share code and expertise, while others may keep work private for commercial reasons.
Read says ARIA is aiming to advance projects far enough to attract further development, while working with the UK’s Manufacturing Technology Centre on manufacturability. Success may take a generation to judge, though nearer-term signs include new capabilities, products, and interest in robot hardware. ARIA was established for ten years, and Read invites people with hardware needs or feedback to contact her.
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