Urban automation is expanding through developments in artificial intelligence, robotics, drones, sensors, autonomous vehicles and investment in urban control centres. This offers opportunities to support urban living, use infrastructures more efficiently and respond to turbulence. It also raises issues about trust, control and automated segregation.
The theme seeks to understand how innovations in autonomous systems and robotics shape urban life and infrastructures.
Research Questions
– Can urban automation be understood as a distinctive socio-technical field and what are its potential urban implications?
– How are experiments in automation and robotics shaping governance processes across different domains of urban life?
– What forms of automated citizenship are developing and how do they shape human capabilities and experiences?
– Is expansion in non-human decision-making creating more adaptable or centralised logics of urban control?
News
The myths of smart metering
This blog was written by Dr Rachel Macrorie, Research Associate and portfolio lead on Urban Automation. The largest UK infrastructure project is underway. Traditional electricity and gas meters in homes and businesses are being replaced with the next generation of…
Read MoreResearching Sheffield’s diverse landscape of smart urbanism experimentation
The birthplace of stainless steel, Sheffield has long held worldwide recognition for its large-scale manufacturing industry, technical innovation and craft fabrication. With the decline of UK heavy engineering and associated rise in unemployment from the late 1970s, the public sector…
Read MoreProjects
Knowing: The KNOWledge politics of experimentING with smart urbanism: Comparative work on urban automation over 8 European cities over three years within Sheffield and with European partners (3 yrs from Sept 2016, ORA-ESRC funded).
Governance of Urban Sustainability Transitions (GUST): Advancing the role of the living lab (3 yrs from 2014, JPI Urban Europe).
Events
4 September 2017 – Rise of the Automated City – Public Lecture
Date: Monday 4th September 2017 Time: 5:30pm – 7.00pm Venue: ICOSS Lecture Theatre (1st floor), Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences (ICOSS), 219 Portobello, Sheffield, S1 4DP; followed by a reception in ICOSS foyer (opposite). From driverless cars, to delivery robots, digitised homes and networks of…
Read More5-6 September 2017 – Urban Automation/Automated Cities: Developing a Critical Research Agenda, International workshop
University of Sheffield and University of Amsterdam Sheffield, United Kingdom, 5-6th September 2017 Organisers: Simon Marvin, Aidan While, Rachel Macrorie, Andy Lockhart –Urban Institute, University of Sheffield. Together with colleagues from Centre for Urban Studies, University of Amsterdam. There is…
Read MoreNetworks
International network of the German Academy of Spatial Research and Planning (ARL): 3 year working group (from 2016) on “Smart grids – Smart cities”.
Future Cities Catapult: Expert Advisory Group
ESRC international network (INCUT) – final meeting on smart and sustainability (Sept 2016 in Sheffield)
‘Daily life, digital technologies and energy demand’ Early Career Researcher network – International 2-day workshop & webinar series led to a co-edited working paper collection, and panel session at the Beyond Balance Conference (London), as part of EPSRC network funding awarded by the Balance Network.
400
Estimated value in billions of global market for smart urban systems by 2020
50
Numbers of connected devices are forecast to grow globally from 10bn in 2014, to up to 50bn by 2020.
2.5
Number of people who voluntarily wear an electronic tracking device such as a smartphone
29