An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Engineering Laboratory: Fiscal Year 2014 (2015)

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Intelligent Systems Division

The Intelligent Systems Division (ISD) develops measurement science and standards to support the evolution of intelligent technologies to advance U.S. manufacturing. The division’s measurement science research programs aim to improve the versatility of intelligent automation technologies for smart manufacturing and cyberphysical systems applications; to optimize the performance of smart manufacturing systems; and to enable rapid, cost-effective production of products through advanced manufacturing processes and equipment.¹

The ISD consists of five organizational groups that address systems in the areas of manipulation and mobility, networked control, sensing and perception, cognition and collaboration, and production. The work of these groups addresses the key topics of smart manufacturing control systems (SMCS), next-generation robotics and automation, and smart manufacturing processes and equipment and responds to the needs of other agencies. The ISD has approximately 40 staff, and its budget for 2014 was approximately $20 million, reflecting an upward trend over the past 5 years.

TECHNICAL PROGRAMS

Smart Manufacturing Control Systems

Approximately 65 percent of the investment in a modern factory goes toward factory automation, including monitoring, control, and communications. Consequently, it is essential to achieve modularity and interoperability of such complex systems for ease of design, maintenance, and reconfiguration. The ISD has supported progress toward such goals. The division’s current emphasis on performance evaluation of wireless factory networks addresses an important need, as does the project on cybersecurity of industrial control systems (ICS). The objective of the SMCS program is to develop and deploy advances in measurement science for sensing, modeling, and optimizing manufacturing activities in a smart factory. The main thrusts of the program are in measurement and sensing, modeling and simulation, and control and optimization. The strategy for SMCS standards is well suited to the vision of smart factories that are able to exploit access to real-time production information at all points across the facility. The six projects in this program area are well aligned with the program objectives.

Accomplishments

In the factory cybersecurity project the division has demonstrated leadership in addressing cybersecurity in smart factory systems and other industrial cyberphysical systems. Indicative of this leadership is the recent publication of a new draft of NIST SP 800-82, Guide to Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Security, which has been downloaded from the NIST Internet site more than 2.5 million

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¹ National Institute of Standards and Technology, “The Engineering Laboratory—Summaries of Our Activities, Accomplishments and Recognitions,” Gaithersburg, Md., July 2014.

times since its initial draft release in 2006. Concepts from this guide are embodied in the ISD’s contributions to the ISA 99 Technical Committee and to the ISA/IEC suite of international standards for ICS security.

The ISD technical staff also led the development of IEEE Standard 1588, “Precision Clock Synchronization Protocol for Networked Measurement and Control Systems.” This standard will enable synchronization with an order of magnitude improvement in precision, now measured in nanoseconds. The standard is having broad impact in industrial automation and semiconductor manufacturing and in telecommunication and other applications beyond the smart factory. As networked sensors and actuators grow exponentially within the factory, this standard and the ongoing work in the SMCS project will have even broader impact.

Opportunities and Challenges

The ISD needs more scientific and technical staff in the area of factory cybersecurity. The cybersecurity needs of ICS, robotics, and other smart factory systems differ from the information technology cybersecurity needs addressed by other NIST laboratories. The leader of this project is well recognized for his expertise in both ICS functionality and network cybersecurity technologies and practices—a combination that is hard to find and much in demand. It will be important to grow multidisciplinary staff capabilities for this project and to develop a broad network of connections for dissemination of results, especially to small and mid-sized enterprises. It will be equally important to transfer knowledge from this project area to other programs in the ISD so that cybersecurity can be built into standards and measurement science for applications in smart factories, control systems, manufacturing processes and equipment, and next-generation robotics and automation. This will require staff development initiatives within the division to equip project teams to implement the ISD’s cybersecurity principles from the ground up in new projects. The complexity of networked systems makes it impractical to add cybersecurity after they have been developed, so there is a need for urgency in incorporating expertise into the teams during the current project windows of opportunity.

Next-Generation Robotics and Automation

Current industrial robots often cannot operate safely with humans, and so they need to be isolated. This limits their applicability and increases the costs of automation. The NGRA program is developing performance evaluation methods and standards for safe robot—human interactions and has established credibility in methods for measuring and evaluating safe robot—human interactions. Part of the ISD’s mission is to evaluate system performance and develop standard test methods for robotic systems.

Accomplishments

Testbeds have been built to focus on evaluating performance in the following areas: perception, dexterity and manipulation, mobility, safety, collaboration, and agility. These testbeds include new-generation robot arms, three-fingered hands, and automated guided vehicle (AGV) equipment. In the robotics performance measurement area, the division has started a standardization effort on the performance of AGVs. The division is also extending performance evaluation to other systems, preparing to cover various aspects in evaluating robotic hand capabilities, such as position, torque, grasp types, graspable object size and ranges, touch location, force, and pressure via tactile sensing. The ISD develops methods to objectively evaluate the performance of current systems in perception, dexterity, manipulation, mobility, safety, collaboration, and agility. ISD staff are performing tests that will generate assessment criteria to enable manufacturers to evaluate commercial systems with respect to critical factors

such as perception and grasped object position. As an example, in the perception area, the ISD led the effort to develop the ASTM E2919-13 standard test methods for evaluating the performance of systems that measure static, six degree of freedom pose. Many companies benefit from this standard by asking suppliers to provide the test results on their systems.

Opportunities and Challenges

Development of safe industrial robots is a critical activity that supports the use of automation in manufacturing facilities. Such automation enables high levels of production, repeatable quality, and a new era of human—machine interaction that can enable flexible manufacturing systems. The division’s effort in evaluating dexterity and manipulation will be valuable in the long term, when flexible hands or grippers are commonly utilized. In pursuit of the long-term goal, the short-term priority might best be focused on the repeatability and stability evaluation of the held objects (i.e., the end results) instead of the evaluation of performance of the individual components of the robot.

Extending safety evaluation to other systems such as collaborative robots, hands, and end-effectors, which will operate in a more interactive environment with humans, will be valuable for industry as these capabilities mature to the use of fenceless automation, at which point humans will be able to work safely within the reach of robots. In the area of safety evaluation, the size of the group is small and may not have the critical mass to accomplish the scope of work.

The ISD recognizes that the scope of work needs to grow in order to address the need for evaluation criteria for many aspects of robot performance, such as the dexterity and manipulation characteristics of the new generation of industrial robots.

Smart Manufacturing Processes and Equipment

The objective of the Smart Manufacturing Processes and Equipment program is to develop and deploy advances in measurement science that will enable rapid and cost-effective production of innovative, complex products utilizing measurements, physics-based modeling, and simulation of machines and processes at the workstation level. The main thrusts of the program have been in smart machining, micro- and nanomanufacturing, and metal additive manufacturing.

Accomplishments

The program has been successful in establishing machine tool performance testing standards, as evidenced by several ASME and ISO standards and the dissemination of results through ISO publications. The ISD actively participates in several committees and consortia in each of the program thrusts and for years has been a leader in smart machining metrology. The ISD has been actively engaged in ASTM committees to establish additive manufacturing standards. The division has made progress in additive manufacturing standards by leading an ASTM/ISO joint working group to develop a prototype standard test artifact for additive manufacturing. The ISD actively participates in several committees and consortia in each of the program thrusts.

Opportunities and Challenges

The decision in fiscal year 2014 to terminate the smart machining activities and focus on measurement science for additive manufacturing may risk loss of critical capability and recognized expertise in smart machining. Advanced manufacturing needs both additive and subtractive processes.

Subtractive manufacturing processes typically refer to conventional manufacturing processes by which material is removed, e.g., from a billet, to make a part and achieve the final desired geometries and tolerances. Additive manufacturing processes refer to a suite of methods to add material, typically in powder or wire form, to make a part, add features to a part, or repair a part. These emerging additive manufacturing processes render near-net shape parts and present new challenges in machining. A hybrid approach consisting of both additive manufacturing and smart machining is needed for the development of measurement science for additive manufacturing processes.

The suite of processes for the additive manufacturing of metal requires postthermomechanical processing (heat treatment, machining, and surface finishing) to achieve desired material and structural properties and geometries that meet tight tolerance requirements. In many respects, additive manufacturing and subtractive manufacturing are complementary. Subsequent machining or surface finishing is needed for near-net shape parts produced by additive manufacturing processes. The expertise developed at the ISD in science-based smart machining can be applied to the suite of processes for additive manufacturing of metal to accelerate learning and to provide results to help industry understand and adopt these technologies. The machining of a casting is different from the machining of a forging, so the machining of different additive manufacturing processes would also vary. Research is needed to elucidate the relationship between the amount of material to add in the additive processes and the amount of material to remove in subsequent machining or surface finishing in order to achieve the desired tolerances, efficiencies, and economics.

A hybrid approach will support achievement of the division’s desired impact on advances in measurement science to enable widespread adoption by the U.S. manufacturing industry of additive manufacturing processes for metal by helping to overcome technology barriers and enable robust, deterministic, and rapid production of innovative, customized, complex products.

Projects for Other Agencies

Projects sponsored by other government agencies have been an important part of the ISD portfolio for many years, providing both supplemental financial support for the division’s technical staff and new professional connections to researchers and practitioners in other fields. As the ISD’s budget has grown (having roughly doubled over the past 5 years), the need for supplemental financial support has decreased. Nonetheless, the selective acceptance of work for other agencies has benefitted staff by exposing them to new problem areas, and by providing opportunities for application of the ISD’s technical expertise and recognition of the division’s unique role in measurement science and independent evaluation.

The recent completion of a series of projects sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a case in point. The ISD served as the independent evaluator in the DARPA TRANSTAC automated language translation program and its follow-on transformative applications program, both of which delivered essential capabilities to warfighters in Iraq and Afghanistan. The scale of the DARPA projects exceeded the normal ISD project size, providing funding and the opportunity to gain deep insights into the work of DARPA’s best competitively selected technical performers. By being part of the DARPA team from the outset of these projects, the ISD was able to contribute significantly to the planning, play a highly influential role in project execution, develop general purpose evaluation protocols and tools for measuring performance of complex intelligent systems, participate in DARPA’s high-profile dissemination of results, and gain visibility and recognition for ISD’s contributions. Recognition included a 2013 NIST Gold Medal for the ISD team’s technical excellence and its role in delivering technologies that saved lives on the battlefield.

Other agency (OA) projects are likely to continue to be a significant part of the ISD portfolio. In fiscal year 2014 OA projects made up about 15 percent of the ISD portfolio, down from as much as 40 percent in the past. Given the benefits to the ISD and to stakeholders, it would be appropriate for future planning to include carefully selected OA projects. The ISD’s internally sponsored projects would

logically have first claim on available staff, but a deliberate planning approach to make staff available for OA projects would serve the division well in the long run.

Overall Assessment

The ISD’s research programs are focused on measurement science and standards for manufacturing. Two exceptions are the DARPA-funded projects on soldier smartphone applications and language translation systems and the projects aimed at developing performance test methods for response robots. These projects, too, directly build on the division’s expertise in performance evaluation. The ISD research portfolio is well aligned with areas of national priority, such as advanced manufacturing and robotics. The ISD personnel are aware of strategic directions of importance to both the government and industry, and they have focused their efforts on those critical areas.

ISD projects evince a spectrum of technical quality, with some being strong in the planning phase, others in the execution phase, and others in the dissemination phase.

In the planning phase it is essential to engage the appropriate stakeholders from academia and industry. The ISD is proactive in its use of workshops to bring together its stakeholders, but there may be room for some improvement with respect to engagement of government research establishments. For example, the Robonaut team at NASA’s Johnson Space Center is among the leaders in research on dexterous manipulation and could have been included in the ISD’s robotics workshops. Although the correct mix of engagement with companies in the private sector was frequently achieved, the engagement was not always at the right level.

With respect to the execution phase, the teams were highly engaged and enthusiastic and were comprised of individuals with the appropriate academic skill sets, enhanced by business domain knowledge (this was particularly evident in the machining department). However, there is a need to hire staff to sustain the skill base within the laboratories, because there is a significant retirement-eligible population. The critical mass of personnel in several groups is a risk factor, with some areas—for example, cybersecurity of ICS—having a bench strength of only one.

Manufacturing research and development (R&D) is important for national prosperity and requires fundamental supporting science. Manufacturing R&D is critically important for realizing value from investments in product and material innovation. Despite growing national awareness of this importance, research in enabling processes and technologies for advanced manufacturing often fails to keep pace with material or product development research. It is crucial that the ISD leadership continue to support the division’s activities in manufacturing science. In order to exploit the extensive portfolio of fundamental research programs in materials, particularly at DOE and the National Science Foundation (NSF), the United States needs an equal level of innovation focused on the fundamental research and standards required to create manufacturing processes and technologies that enable commercialization of new products.

It is important that the many groups working effectively within the ISD continually consider innovative and cross-disciplinary activities, essential to maintain their vitality, including nontraditional business mechanisms aimed at driving game-changing innovations across the groups. A continuing challenge is to generate ideas and mature them, connect them across the groups, and predict which ones will deliver effective approaches to achieving mission objectives. The ISD could consider, for example, relevant business practices that combine evaluative competitions for entrepreneurial ideas with a gaming mechanism, such as prediction markets, which have been used by many companies to predict effective project timing and choose innovative projects.

PORTFOLIO OF SCIENTIFIC EXPERTISE

Accomplishments

The ISD has very capable, motivated, and enthusiastic staff. They have a clear command of the technical issues they are focused on and are actively involved in the broader research and standards community for those topics, both in the United States and globally. The personnel at the ISD have demonstrated the ability to apply their knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering. They are very capable of designing and conducting experiments and of analyzing and interpreting data. Their recognition of the need for, and ability to engage in, continuing education in multiple disciplines enable the personnel to function on multidisciplinary teams and look at problems from a broader systems perspective. The staff are professional and effective in communicating the work that they perform.

There are research areas in the ISD that are recognized as being among the leading groups in the world. For example, the division has a long-established reputation in machining metrology and machine tool error compensation. It is well recognized for its pioneering work on security of ICS. Its work on testing and performance assessment of small mobile robots used in disaster response is also widely well regarded.

Opportunities and Challenges

The popularity of additive manufacturing has revived in recent years. The initial enthusiasm for the technology when it emerged more than two decades ago became muted by the challenges of incorporating the systems into the manufacturing process beyond prototyping. The invention of new additive manufacturing systems that provide better material choices has created the need for objective assessments and evaluations. The ISD team recently established a small activity in this area, which is timely, given the significant growth of original equipment manufacturers and systems.

Additive manufacturing is an area of growth for the ISD at NIST. The research performed is much needed to establish material standards and test standards, because there is no publicly available database of these standards for different additive manufacturing processes and materials, especially for additive manufacturing of structural parts.

As the ISD expands its portfolio, there is opportunity for growth in scientific expertise, which needs to be combined with increased domain expertise across different industries. This essential combination will drive the development of relevant standards to enable the manufacturing community to match equipment with appropriate applications.

The ISD has chosen to focus on laser powder bed fusion of metals. This is an additive manufacturing process that has applicability across several industries. Staying abreast of the other additive manufacturing processes is necessary, even if they are not the primary focus of measurement science at the ISD. Division personnel are staying abreast of developments through participation in several committees and consortia. Further engagement with equipment manufacturers, research institutions, academia, other government entities, and the international community engaged in different additive manufacturing processes, would enable the ISD to influence and engage others in further advancing measurement science for its suite of additive manufacturing processes. An early success is the development of a prototype standard test artifact for additive manufacturing. Active engagement with the ASTM/ISO Joint Working Group to make this a test standard is underway.

The ISD has scientific expertise in the several disciplines that are needed to pursue material and process characterization methods and standards and an expanded scope that includes characterizing additive manufacturing materials; real-time control of additive manufacturing processes; qualification of additive manufacturing materials, processes, and parts; and systems integration for additive manufacturing. The ISD staff possess expertise in smart machining, metrology, sensors, controls, and nondestructive evaluation. With the existing expertise and with new expertise being developed in additive

manufacturing failure modes, effects, and criticality analysis studies, there would be a natural progression to identify and optimize critical parameters for trade-offs between quality (surface finish enhancements and better properties), speed (fast build rates), and accuracy (tolerances). This would support the objective to enable widespread adoption by the U.S. manufacturing industry of additive manufacturing processes for metal.

The pilot round-robin tests that the division and its partners have been engaged in addresses build-to-build variation and machine-to-machine variation of the same machine model. Building on the pilot round-robin testing with equipment manufacturers, manufacturing companies, academia, and government institutions that are working with different laser powder bed fusion machines or materials would help to generate a larger data set and address machine-model-to-machine-model variation. Similar work is being performed at other laboratories with different materials and different machines. The difference is that the ISD’s approach can be standardized and disseminated widely. This would support the objective of enabling widespread adoption by the U.S. manufacturing industry of additive manufacturing processes for metals, by addressing the differences in machine models through leveraging of external expertise.

Attracting and retaining the best researchers is a perennial challenge for government laboratories, especially in technical fields with competing commercial demands. The ISD has done very well over the years in building a top-notch technical staff, and the long tenure of many current staff members evinces the ability of the division to retain expertise in critical areas. However, there is potential for increased turnover owing to the number of retirement-eligible staff, and there is a lack of bench strength and difficulties in hiring in the new technical areas the division is entering.

About 50 percent of the 39 current ISD staff members are eligible for retirement within 5 years. Action is needed now to identify key positions where succession planning is indicated, to identify pools of internal candidates from across NIST and invest in their development, and to build relationships with external sources of qualified expertise to encourage applicants when positions open up. The division has dealt with turnover before, and the actions needed are well understood. Execution will require support from the EL director.

The division is appropriately planning and executing programs in new technology areas such as SMCS, additive manufacturing, industrial robotics, and cyberphysical systems. In addition, the division has seen an explosion of government and global industry interest in its work on ICS cybersecurity, with more than 2.5 million downloads from the NIST Internet site of the Guide to ICS Security (NIST SP 800-82) since its initial draft release in 2006. The division currently has one staff member who is widely recognized for deep expertise in this area and who is spread very thin in responding to current program demands. The division is trying to hire at a time when ICS cybersecurity experts can demand and receive high salaries and other benefits from industry. Government salaries are not competitive in this niche area. This example is a bellwether of expected competition for a limited pool of qualified talent in all of these new program areas that have high demand for unusual combinations of cross-disciplinary knowledge and skills.

Because the need to staff ongoing and new programs is urgent, the division cannot wait and hope for qualified, affordable candidates to become available. A strategy is needed to hire now where possible (by emphasizing factors other than salary alone that make NIST employment attractive), to invest in developing the needed multidisciplinary skills in current staff and entry- level hires, and to provide interim support through contracts and cooperative research arrangements with universities and others.

FACILITIES, EQUIPMENT, AND HUMAN RESOURCES

Overall, the ISD facilities and equipment are well suited to meet the division’s needs. The division has experienced varying levels of investment in buildings and facilities. There are state- of-the-art facilities in the new, rapid-response robot initiatives, which contrast with less-funded areas such as the

new additive manufacturing laboratories, although there appeared to be plans under discussion for addressing that area.

Accomplishments

A new showcase facility has been created to support the work of the ISD in standard methods for performance evaluation of mobile robots used in disaster response. This is a unique facility that provides excellent research space as well as a venue for outreach and dissemination of research results. The longstanding ISD programs related to machine tool performance and machining metrology are supported by excellent facilities. While these facilities are not new, they are well maintained and suitable for the purposes of the research programs.

Opportunities and Challenges

New additive manufacturing machines with enhanced features and capabilities are introduced to the market each year. There are several laser powder bed fusion of metal machines, many with higher-performance lasers and optics, controlled environmental chambers, automated powder delivery, in-process monitoring, powder compaction, and other features and tools to advance measurement science knowledge. These new machines are being purchased by industry, academia, research institutions, and government entities globally. It may be difficult for industry and academia to see the ISD at the forefront of measurement science if its equipment does not represent the best available.

The current machine at the ISD is adequate for the initial work and for developing expertise. Ownership of and/or access to machines with capabilities and equipment that can detect and measure defects in additive manufactured parts in situ or postprocess would better support the ISD’s objective, which is to enable widespread adoption by the U.S. manufacturing industry of additive manufacturing processes for metal. Partnerships with equipment manufacturers, other government entities, academia, and others to gain access to equipment that the ISD does not own or exploring equipment loans are options to consider.

Procuring the appropriate equipment for measurement science projects is essential to achieving program objectives. In the fast-moving field of additive manufacturing, it is particularly important that the ISD secure rapid access to necessary equipment and that it be able to measure the performance of particular characteristics in response to the needs of industry stakeholders. According to ISD staff, current ISD equipment procurement practices are not in line with this laboratory need. The Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) generally favor competitive procurement using performance specifications that are broadly enough defined to allow for competition among multiple brands of equipment and selection on a best-value basis. According to ISD staff, NIST and federal procurement regulations have set the bar high for justification of sole source procurements and have discouraged specifications that are so narrow that only one brand of equipment can meet them. This is entirely appropriate if the division needs to procure an air conditioner or another commodity item. However, when the objective of the research is measurement science based on the combination of features that only one machine offers, this practice can consume months of procurement cycle time and end up by selecting unsuitable equipment, or it may be cancelled or restarted with different specifications.

The laboratory technical staff need an opportunity to justify their narrow specifications for required equipment, with appropriate technical management review. It would be useful for the ISD to benchmark its laboratory equipment procurement practices against those of other federal laboratories, which may be taking better advantage of sole source procurements and other flexibility built into the FAR. The ISD’s laboratories may be adequate to support the work performed, but the infrastructure would benefit from work-space freshness and modernization. The quality of the facilities influences recruitment and retention of employees and would appropriately be a part of the division’s strategic plan.

DISSEMINATION OF OUTPUTS

Accomplishments

The research work in the ISD is being published in good journals and conferences appropriate to the research topics. Some of the work has also achieved a good citation record, which speaks to its technical merit and broader impact. Given the scope of ISD activities (which include the planning, execution, and dissemination phases of research), their publication record is good. An example of accomplishment in dissemination is NIST Special Publication 800-82, Guide to Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Security, downloaded from the NIST Internet site more than 2.5 million times since its initial draft release in 2006. An ASTM International Standardization News article on emergency response robots successfully highlights the division’s scientific expertise and leadership of the ASTM International Subcommittee E54.08 on operational equipment to produce robot performance standards. It also highlights how the ISD’s work led to the success of Quince, a response robot used at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Articles in ASTM International Standardization News have also featured the division’s leadership roles in smart manufacturing and AGVs.

Opportunities and Challenges

With respect to dissemination of information, there has been a tendency to take a traditional and somewhat limited approach with a strong focus on publishing and conferences, which, although important, could be enhanced with the adoption of additional mechanisms such as social media. A targeted marketing approach could be used to drive not only the dissemination mechanism but also the scope and format of the information to promote a deeper penetration of the ISD deliverables into the many different stakeholders in the manufacturing sectors. In conjunction with developing new mechanisms for the dissemination of information (or any other new business practices), it will be important to modify performance metrics to reward new staff behaviors. There may be opportunities for wider use of social media to publicize NIST’s work and accomplishments, including opportunities for more focused dissemination to a target audience via social media and potentially via engaging professional marketing and communication assistance.

Participation in scientific meetings and conferences is essential to the planning, execution, and dissemination of outputs of ISD programs. In 2012, the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued guidance to all federal agencies that travel budgets needed to be cut by 30 percent and that attendance at conferences be subject to tighter restrictions and senior level reviews. The impact on the EL was a freezing of the travel budget at 2010 levels. According to ISD staff, the effect on the division has been to constrain not only the ability of technical staff to engage in mission-essential travel but also the ability to cover the travel and relocation expenses that are essential to recruiting new technical staff. ISD staff expressed concern that these constraints are compromising the division’s ability to carry out its measurement science mission. It is understood that policy decisions in this area are beyond the division’s control, but the ISD needs to work with NIST management and administrative offices to develop budget categories and strategies that distinguish travel for programs, travel for staff development, and travel for personnel recruitment and relocation, so that policy makers can fine-tune future guidance.

Travel restrictions impede ISD personnel from making important contacts, developing professional relationships, and gaining a world perspective at events such as the World Radiocommunications Conference, which takes place every 3 or 4 years, at which in 2015 new radio frequency spectrum standards will be discussed and established; Euromold, the world’s largest conference on additive manufacturing; and AUTOMATICA, the world’s largest conference on robotics, assembly lines, and machine-vision systems. The European Commission announced the world’s largest civil robotics program, SPARC, at the AUTOMATICA 2014 Conference, with an investment of €2.8 billion and more than 240,000 jobs anticipated.

FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The ISD needs to develop and implement plans for recruitment and retention of quality staff. One of the common challenges to R&D institutions is that of meeting required capital and human resource needs. The investment required to enable organizations to meet their mission goals has increased along with the exponentially increasing generation of new technology. The ISD is not unique in experiencing this resource challenge and may also need to look at alternative business processes and mechanisms by which to generate meaningful data. The ISD may wish to explore the use of more affordable mechanisms to achieve some of its goals.