Report deals with mechatronics in Russia

A team of scientists and industry representatives visited Russia in November last year to learn more about developments in mechatronics and establish links for future collaborative opportunities.

The Impact of the Chernobyl disaster and the needs of the gas and oil industry are just two of the factors that have shaped cutting-edge research carried out in Russia, according to the results of a fact-finding mission.

A team of scientists and industry representatives, led by De Montfort University Leicester (DMU), visited Russia in November last year to learn more about developments in the field and establish links for future collaborative opportunities.

On Wednesday (21 March), the team will present their findings at a seminar in London.

The mission, which is partly funded by the Department of Trade and Industry's (DTI) Global Watch Service, featured a number of visits to companies and scientific organisations specialising in mechatronics technologies.

Mechatronics is a form of engineering which combines mechanics, electronics and computing.

Researchers at DMU's Mechatronics Research Centre (MRC) co-ordinated the visit to Moscow and St Petersberg.

Delegates on the mission included representatives of MBDA UK, Doosan Babcock, Rolls-Royce and RU Robots.

Professor Philip Moore, Head of Research and Commercial Development at DMU's Faculty of Computing Sciences and Engineering, was the lead academic for the mission.

He said: "The mission provided the delegation with an excellent opportunity to see at first hand Russian capabilities in mechatronics in a range of sectors through a cross section of visits to research institutes, universities and commercial organisations".

"The team saw original work and examples of new ways of approaching problems".

"In robotics, the Chernobyl incident has clearly been a significant driver for the development of hostile environment inspection and repair robots, and most of these developments are now commercially available in prototype form".

He added: "The growing oil and gas industry in Russia is also an important customer".

"Here the emphasis is on providing cost-effective solutions from existing technology rather than driving original research".

The findings of the mission will be discussed in a series of presentations.

Professor Jury V Poduraev, from Moscow State Technological University (MSTU Stankin), and Dr Boris Spassky, of the Russian State Scientific centre of Robotics and Technical Cybernetics, will be guest speakers at the seminar.

The DTI's Global Watch Service helps small groups of influential experts from industry and academia to visit other countries with the aim of boosting UK companies through the sharing of knowledge.

The Mechatronics Research Centre is one of the UK's premier centres for mechatronics research.

Staff at the centre have carried out research into areas as diverse as the use of mobile robots for underground pipeline inspection and the development of smart home appliances that can communicate remotely.

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