15 Jun 2026
ORI AutoInspect project wins Oxford Vice-Chancellor’s Award celebrating innovation and collaboration
Researchers from the Oxford Robotics Institute and the UK Atomic Energy Authority were presented with the Collaboration for Innovation Award in the University of Oxford’s Vice-Chancellor’s Awards 2026
Members of the AutoInspect team being presented with the Collaboration for Innovation Award by the Vice-Chancellor ©John Cairns Photography
The AutoInspect project – a joint project with the Oxford Robotics Institute (ORI) and the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority’s (UKAEA) Remote Applications in Challenging Environments division – has been recognised in the University of Oxford’s Vice-Chancellor’s Awards 2026, winning the Collaboration for Innovation Award. The project developed a fully autonomous robotic system to safely conduct inspection patrols at industrial facilities, including maintenance inspections at a fusion energy facility in a world first.
The Vice-Chancellor’s Awards recognise outstanding achievements across the University, with this year's awards attracting 170 entries and more than 1,000 individuals included in nominations. Winners, highly commended entries and finalists were celebrated at a showcase event held at the Schwarzman Centre on 2 June, followed by an awards ceremony hosted by Vice-Chancellor Professor Irene Tracey on 4 June. Under the Impact through Innovation theme, the award celebrates projects which harness innovation, technology and collaboration to deliver measurable impact.
AutoInspect is an autonomous system for mobile and legged robots developed for industrial inspection. The project integrates research from the Dynamic Robot Systems (DRS) Group, led by Professor Maurice Fallon, and the Goal-Oriented Long-Lived Systems (GOALS) Lab, led by Professor Nick Hawes.
The project combined a graph-based LIDAR simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) solution to build up a navigational map, with a mission planning system based on a topological graph abstraction and online learning of robot performance. This combined approach allows for features of interest – such as inspection points for chemical, thermal or visual sampling – to be added to the navigational map while taking into account battery life and obstacles for mission and route replanning. The project used a Frontier payload device to deploy AutoInspect on a Boston Dynamics quadruped Spot, allowing the robot to autonomously gather images, thermal and radiological readings of its environment.
The team undertook a 35-day trial deployment of the autonomous system at UKAEA’s Joint European Torus (JET) facility. The inspection tasks within JET involved mapping the entire facility, and taking sensor readings of its environment, while avoiding obstacles and personnel involved in the decommissioning process. In a world-first, they successfully demonstrated that part of a fusion facility’s maintenance can be carried out by an autonomous robot, thus making such work safer for humans and more cost-efficient for its operator. Technology from this project has been commercialised in spin-outs co-founded by ORI staff: NavLive (3D scanning) and Stateful Robotics (decision-making for autonomous robots).
Professor Nick Hawes, Director of the ORI and Principal Investigator for GOALS Lab, says: “AutoInspect has been a flagship development for ORI. It brings together research contributions from multiple groups on mapping, change detection, and mission planning under uncertainty, and delivers them in a robust form to support commercial-grade autonomous inspection in a sector- and platform-neutral manner. It’s had great impact for ORI in terms of both science and application, underpinned by our deep ties with UKAEA."
Dr Rob Skilton, Head of Robotics Research and Technology at UKAEA says, “We have achieved a remarkable milestone for robotics, fusion, and UK innovation together. It’s always inspiring to work with the ORI team, and I look forward to our continued collaboration to tackle the robotics challenges needed to make fusion energy a reality.”
Find out more about the project here.
Other Engineering successes at the VC Awards
OrganOx, a spinout company based on Institute of Biomedical Engineering research into organ preservation technology, won the Commercialisation and Entrepreneurship Award. The technology has helped save more than 8,000 lives worldwide and achieved a landmark commercial exit valued at $1.5 billion.
Dr Adel Bibi was a finalist for the Breakthrough Researcher Award for his work on agentic AI safety and security in the Research and Discovery.
In the Education and Learning category, the Graduate Programme in Brain Imaging was highly commended for the Teaching, Learning and Assessment Award. Oxford’s volunteer-led programme delivers world-class MRI training, cultivating leaders in cutting-edge brain imaging research. This project is led by NDCN and includes a key contribution from Professor Thomas Okell.
In the Enabling our Mission category, The Confident Manager Series was highly commended for the Empowering People Award. This flexible, modular management development programme is designed to build the confidence and capability of managers across the University. The project is led by Learning & Organisational Development, UAS and includes a key contribution from our colleague Jarlath Brine.
More about the VC Awards
