IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2013 - 16

IndustrIal actIvItIes

Robotics and Automation
Activities in South Africa
By Simukai Utete, Jeremy Green, Ashley Liddiard, and Chris R. Burger

Second in the series of articles focusing on the state of
robotics and automation in the BRICS countries: Brazil,
Russia, India, China, and South Africa, this article provides
an overview on South Africa written by researchers from the
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. The objective of
this series is to inform the readers of the unique challenges

outh Africa sits at the southern
tip of Africa. The country has a
population of 52.98 million,
according to 2013 statistical estimates [1]. South Africa comprises nine
provinces, with major cities including
Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria, and
Durban. Sectors such as mining and
agriculture have traditionally been large,
but the government is working to move
more from a resource-based economy to
a knowledge-based economy. The country is involved in major science projects,
such as the Square Kilometre Array, and
there is a significant research taking
place in a range of areas including biology and medical sciences. Robotics is
also gaining importance in South
Africa's science and technology landscape in industry as well as in academic
institutions and science councils. This
introduction to robotics and automation
in South Africa seeks to give a flavor of
some of the developments in the country. It is by no means exhaustive.
The importance and potential of
robotics are recognized by South
Africa's Department of Science and
Technology (DST). The DST, which
has previously supported strategies
for nanotechnology and photonics, is
now considering stakeholder submissions toward the formulation of a
national robotics strategy. A strategy

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MRA.2013.2272204
Date of publication: 11 September 2013

IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

that these countries have faced and the solutions they have
adopted to solve their problems and to facilitate discussions
with the interested members of the community. Please
send your comments and feedback to the IEEE Robotics &
Automation Society (RAS) Vice President of the Industrial
Activities Board Raj Madhavan at raj.madhavan@ieee.org.

development process involving interactions of potential stakeholders has
been running for more than two
years and has identified areas where
robotics could be important for preserving jobs and creating new ones,
as well as improving productivity and
competitiveness [2].
Given South Africa's history and the
need for development to widen the
scope of opportunity, the human angle
is key. Human capital development
would be a thrust of any strategy. This
would encompass tertiary study as well
as the training of technicians and artisans who could maintain robotics infrastructure, allowing for a larger share of
demand for maintenance activity to be
met from within South Africa.
In general, a discussion of robotics in
many contexts raises the issue of
employment, the question of whether
robots will reduce jobs. There are specific jobs in certain industries where
this might be an issue, but robotics can
also be a driver for the creation of new
jobs, and new types of industry, as well
as a force to improve certain types of
jobs. Stakeholder engagements around
the robotics strategy brought out many
advantages, which a robotics focus
could confer, including improved competitiveness in certain industries and
the provision of better working environments for certain types of activity. One
example of the latter is the potential for
the use of robotics to enhance safety.

SEpTEMBER 2013

The strategy discussion to date has
identified the initial focus areas for
potential impact in South Africa as
mining, flexible manufacturing, and
medicine and health care [2].
Mining Robotics
Mining robotics is one of South
Africa's biggest opportunities for
robotics research and development to
promote greater safety, extend the life
of mines, and improve competitiveness. One reason is that there are
large reserves of gold in underground
deposits, which might become feasible to mine through new technologies, including robotics. Unexploited
deposits are located in stability pillars, in areas that are unsafe for people, or found to be nonprofitable for
extraction because of low grade or
narrow deposit using existing mining
technologies [3].
South African gold and platinum
deposits share characteristics in that
they are narrow (5 cm to 1.5 m) bands
of ore hundreds of kilometers wide,
dipping into the earth at between 12°
and 30° from the surface to as yet
uncharted depths. Challenges in mining at extreme depths of more than
5 km underground are such that the
use of people to mine, as in the traditional narrow stoping, is not feasible. At
this depth, the rock stresses make it
unsafe for people to be near the rock
face because of the high risk of a rock

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2013