John Lewis Partnership backs robotics innovation initiative

The John Lewis Partnership has joined forces with the Small Robot Company, strategic design consultancy Method and various UK robotics companies and industry bodies to create a blueprint for human robot interaction. The first guiding principles of this will today be unveiled at Google's London HQ.

The aim is to foster and accelerate the safe and ethical adoption of robotics across British industry. It will also help define how autonomous robotic technology should interact with people across the likes of manufacturing, retail and farming.

The initiative follows on from Small Robot Company’s first collaboration with the John Lewis Partnership last November, when it commenced a three year trial of its harvesting robots on the Waitrose & Partners farm in Leckford, Hampshire. It is also working with the retailer’s Room Y innovation team, which is assisting in the development of HRI as well as other propositions for the retail industry.

“Britain is a melting pot for robotics innovation and the use of autonomous robot technology to assist human workers is a very real prospect for the future,” says John Vary, Futurologist at the John Lewis Partnership.

“Before we get there, we need to define how that relationship works. The John Lewis Partnership started out as a radical experiment in industrial democracy and innovation continues to remain at the heart of our business today. Therefore we are uniquely placed to support businesses like the Small Robot Company as this technology evolves.”