John Gray MSc PhD DSc CEng FIET FInstMC

John Gray has a technical background in control and instrumentation with the former being concerned with nonlinear systems and the latter being focussed on electromagnetic systems including the development of a unique differential flow-meter for haemodialysis machines which enabled the precision control of ultra-filtration during dialysis therapy. 

In 1979 he was appointed to a Chair of control engineering at the University of Salford and his work on integrated systems engineering led to the establishment of the DTI’s National Advanced Robotics Research Centre at Salford in 1987. John served as its Research Director and was a main Board member of the holding industrial consortium ARRL Ltd. Following that five year project he became Director of the University’s Centre for Robotics and Automation with interests in the development of aspects of humanoid robotics and in the last ten years or so aspects of automation in food manufacturing.

Food Manufacturing Engineering Group 

In 1999 he established with MAAF/Defra sponsorship the Food Manufacturing Engineering Group which is an industrial/academic forum to identify key issues relating to the use of automation in the food sector and to foster engineering research in this sector. 

In 2006 a proposal submitted by John to Yorkshire Forward, with FMEG support, resulted in the establishment of CenFRA Ltd which is a facility to support the uptake of automation in the food manufacturing sector in three Regional Development Areas in the north of England.

Current projects

Involvement with ongoing research projects include the EC projects ROBOTCUB (the iCub humanoid robot development at IIT in  Genoa), NovelQ, (automated food assembly line at SiK in Sweden) and the Defra project GRAIL (design of a specialised  food assembly robot at the University of Sheffield).

After leaving Salford in 2008, John is now employed as a Senior Scientist in Robotics and Automation at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa and has visiting Chairs at the Control System Centre at the University of Manchester and at the Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering at the University of Sheffield.

Recent professional appointments

• Member of the IET Innovation and Emerging Technologies Policy Panel
• Member of the Executive Committee IET Robotics and Mechatronics Professional Network
• Member of the IMechE Food Engineering Committee
• Member of the Executive  Board of  the  British  Robotics and Automation Association
• Chair of the IPC. IET/UKACC International Conference – CONTROL 2008 -Manchester
• Member IPC. UKACC International Conference- CONTROL 2010 – Coventry
• Member of euCognition Network 2005-2008, member of euCognition2 2009-2012
• Co-chair Doctoral Symposium of Emerging Developments in Cognitive Science EC
• euCognition project.  Munich  June 2008
• Co-chair IET Symposium on Humanoid Robotics, Manchester Feb 2009
• Member scientific committee, Food Factory Congress, Gothenburg, Sweden. June 2010
• Member scientific committee ASME/IFToMM International Conference on Reconfigurable Mechanisms and Robots, London Sept 2009
• Honorary Editor; Transactions Inst. Measurement and Control
• Member of the Editorial Advisory Board Industrial Robot
• Member of the Editorial Advisory Board Assembly Automation
• Chairman of the DEFRA sponsored Food Manufacturing Engineering Group (afa-net.com)
• Member Technical Advisory Group of CenFRA.