Robert Skilton MSc PhD CEng FIET

Robert Skilton completed a BSc (2006) in Computer Science and MSc (2011) in Cybernetics at the University of Reading, followed by a PhD (2023) at the University of Surrey, focused on generative AI for visual inspection in industrial environments. He held engineering roles in high-integrity robotics systems before joining the UK Atomic Energy Authority in 2013. There, he leads national and international programmes in robotics and AI for extreme environments, and was appointed UKAEA Robotics Fellow and Head of Robotics Research in 2020. Robert joined the University of Oxford in 2025 as Visiting Professor of Practice and member of the Oxford Robotics Institute. 

Professor Skilton's research interests include:

• Robotics for extreme environments
• Robot system agility and robot interoperability
• Machine learning for robot decision making
• Mechanism synthesis and optimisation
• Robotic maintenance
• Tele-robotics

• UK Fusion Robotics – An EPSRC Programme focused on robotics for future fusion facilities.
• Lasers4MaaS – Lasers for Manufacturing as a Service
• IRIS – UK-Korea collaboration on tendon driven inspection robotics

Professor Skilton would be happy to discuss DPhil opportunities in relation to robotics for fusion energy and nuclear decommissioning.