Loughborough University is a top-ten rated university in England for research intensity (REF2014) and an outstanding 66% of the work of Loughborough’s academic staff who were eligible to be submitted to the REF was judged as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’, compared to a national average figure of 43%. In choosing Loughborough for your research, you’ll work alongside academics who are leaders in their field. You will benefit from comprehensive support and guidance from our Doctoral College, including tailored careers advice, to help you succeed in your research and future career. The assembly domain in recent years has been under pressure to deliver highly adaptable and quickly deployable solutions. This is due to the current unpredictability of markets and shorter product lifecycles. Current approaches to deal with these needs require high labour making it economically inviable in markets with high labour cost. In order to address these challenges, there is a need for a “Plug and Produce” assembly system approach that encompasses the human element to create the next generation of assembly environments, Symbiotic Assembly Systems. The aim of this research project is to enable such vision through the creation of agent-based self-aware Cyber-Physical-Devices that are able to interact, with both other components and humans, to deliver assembly system solutions. The scope of the work is to enhance the existing control approaches for mechatronic agents, in order to achieve symbiotic and robust collaborations, making systems easily adaptable and targeting zero down time. Additionally, the project will investigate how to ensure that performance of systems does not degrade in relation to traditional systems.