Roke Manor Research Explained

Type:	Limited Company
Roke
Foundation:	1956
Location:	Romsey, United Kingdom
Key People:	Paul MacGregor, Managing Director Ian Cooper, Finance Director
Area Served:	Worldwide
Num Employees:	828 (2022)^[1]
Parent:	Chemring Group PLC^[2]

Roke, legally Roke Manor Research Ltd, is a British company based at Roke Manor near Romsey, Hampshire, which conducts research and development in the fields of communications, networks, electronic sensors, artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science, Military decision support consultancy and operational analysis, information assurance, and human science. In addition to supporting its parent Chemring, Roke undertakes contract research and development, and product development work for both public and private sector customers. Products developed from research at Roke Manor include the Hawk-Eye ball tracker,^[3] which is now used widely in sports such as tennis, football, and cricket.

Roke has been part of the Chemring Group since 2010, having been founded as part of the Plessey company to operate as a dedicated research and development centre, with mass production elsewhere, and later owned for almost 20 years by Siemens where it had a similar research role.

History

• 1956 – Founded as Plessey Research Roke Manor Limited by the Plessey company.^[4] The first managing director was Harold J. Finden, an electrical engineer at Plessey.
• 1990 – Passed to GEC-Siemens AG in a joint takeover.
• 1991 – Became wholly owned by Siemens AG when GEC sold their 50% shareholding to Siemens Plessey Electronic Systems.
• 2010 – Acquired by the Chemring Group PLC.^{[5] [6]}
• 2021 – Roke made its first acquisition since the founding in 1956, acquiring Cubica Technology Ltd. and their holding company Cubica Group.^[7]

Sites

The company's head office is at Roke Manor, Hampshire. It also has facilities in the Barnwood area of Gloucester, Woking and in central Manchester.^[8]

The Roke Manor site is based around a manor house which dates in part from 1653.^[9] The 22acres grounds had a walled garden, stable block and cottages when bought by Plessey in 1956, and initially these were re-used for laboratory space and meeting rooms, but in various modernisation programmes, many of the original buildings have been demolished and much of the grounds covered by purpose-built facilities and car parking. The main house, entrance lodge and walled garden remain.^[10]

Technology timeline

• 1960 – Working prototype memory systems developed for the supercomputer, Atlas.
• 1975 – Designed and developed the world's first monolithic gallium arsenide microwave circuit.^[11]
• 1995 – Work began on the Hostile Artillery LOcation system (HALO), an acoustic locator of guns and mortars. HALO was developed to monitor ceasefire violations in the Yugoslav wars, and is in use with the British Army and other nations.^[12]
• 2000 – Won the 2000 Worldaware Innovation Award for work on land mine clearance.^[13]
• 2001 – Developed the Hawk-Eye vision-based ball tracking system.^{[14] [15]}

Selected products

• RESOLVE – an electronic warfare manpack system for the intercept, geolocation and exploitation of tactical communications signals within the HF to SHF bands.^[16] In 2011 RESOLVE won a Queen's Award for Enterprise and Innovation.^{[17] [18]}
• Vigilance – a wide area multilateration system for tracking aircraft. Users include Eurocontrol, in support of RVSM.^[19]
• Miniature Radar Altimeters (MRA) – a range of MRA products primarily designed for use on airborne targets and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).^{[20] [21]}
• Epsilon – a software tool designed to predict the radar cross section (RCS) of a target directly from its geometrical description.
• IRIS – Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) equipment.^[22]
• LOCATE – a suite of products for spectrum monitoring, direction finding, adaptive beamforming and geolocation of HF signals.^[23]
• LOCATE-T – team-based mobile version of the LOCATE system.^[24]
• VIPER – electronic warfare planning and data triage.^[25]
• DAMARC – data science in policing.^[26]
• NELSON – driving Royal Navy digitisation.^[27]
• RESOLVE – bespoke lightweight dismounted close quarter Electronic Surveillance pack.^[28]
• HMEWC – High Mobility Electronic Warfare Capability (HMEWC) with integrated Command & Control, Electronic Surveillance and Electronic Attack, capable of operating in complex and contested RF environments.^[29]

External links

50.999°N -1.5202°W

Notes and References

1. Web site: Chemring Group PLC Trading Update, 6 October 2022 . 15 October 2022.
2. Web site: Roke – Chemring Group PLC . 2012-03-26 . 2012. www.chemring.co.uk. Chemring Group PLC.
3. Web site: About Hawk-Eye. Hawk-Eye Innovations Ltd. 8 May 2013. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20130123143935/http://www.hawkeyeinnovations.co.uk/page/about-hawk-eye. 23 January 2013.
4. Web site: History of Roke. 2009-07-06. 2009. www.roke.co.uk. Roke Manor Research Limited. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20090706183712/http://www.roke.co.uk/about/roke-history.html. 2009-07-06.
5. News: Chemring buys Roke from Siemens. 2010-08-11. 2010-08-16. Telegraph . London . Amy . Wilson.
6. Web site: Completion of acquisition of Roke. 2010-09-30. 2010 . Chemring Group PLC.
7. Web site: Cubica acquisition by Roke. 2021-11-30. 2021 . Roke.
8. Web site: Our locations. 2021-06-07. Roke.
9. Web site: Raper. Anthony C.. 1988. History of Roke Manor, Romsey. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304224445/http://www.romseynet.org.uk/genealogy/2011/rokemanor.pdf. 4 March 2016. romseynet.org.uk.
10. Web site: Roke Manor. 2021-06-07. Parks & Gardens. en.
11. Web site: Recalling Early GaAs MMIC Developments. Microwaves & RF. March 2009. 2010-08-16.
12. Web site: Hostile Artillery LOcation (HALO) System. Jane's Information Group. 2008-08-18. 2010-08-16. Jane's Military Communications
13. Web site: The Worldaware Award 2000 for Innovation. Worldaware. 9 May 2011.
14. News: How's that then for hi-tech?. Telegraph. 2000-11-15. 2010-08-16 . London . Simon . Hughes.
15. Owens, N., Harris, C., Stennett, C. (2003). "Hawk-eye tennis system". International Conference on Visual Information Engineering, 2003. VIE 2003.
16. Web site: RESOLVE tactical EW manpack system. Jane's Information Group. 2011-08-03. 2011-09-25.
17. Web site: Roke Electronic Warfare System Wins Queen's Award for Enterprise. Roke Manor Research Limited. 2011-04-21. 2011-04-21. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110709025440/http://www.roke.co.uk/20110421597/press-releases/roke-electronic-warfare-system-wins-queens-award-for-enterprise.html. 2011-07-09.
18. Web site: A List of the 2011 and Previous Winners of The Queen's Award for Innovation. Business Link. 2011-04-21. 2011-04-21. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110720081425/https://online.businesslink.gov.uk/Growth_and_Innovation_files/QA0024_2011_Awards_Innovation.pdf. 2011-07-20.
19. More Room On Top. Harman. Martin. Engineering & Technology. IET. September 2006. 10.1049/et:20060604.
20. Web site: Roke MRA receives ingress protection certification. Shephard Press Limited. 13 May 2013. 6 February 2013.
21. Web site: The technology behind the Beagle 2 Mars Lander. Roke Manor Research Limited. 24 September 2021.
22. Web site: Iris: Pioneering road safety. Roke Manor Research Limited. 24 September 2021.
23. Web site: Strategic HF Signals Intelligence. Roke Manor Research Limited. 24 September 2021.
24. Web site: LOCATE-T: Advanced mobile Electronic Support. Roke Manor Research Limited. 24 September 2021.
25. Web site: VIPER: Electronic warfare planning and data triage. Roke Manor Research Limited. 24 September 2021.
26. Web site: DAMARC: Data science in policing. Roke Manor Research Limited. 24 September 2021.
27. Web site: NELSON: Driving Royal Navy digitisation. Roke Manor Research Limited. 24 September 2021.
28. Web site: RESOLVE-Tactical Solution. Roke Manor Research Limited. 24 September 2021.
29. Web site: High Mobility Electronic Warfare Capability (HMEWC). Roke Manor Research Limited. 24 September 2021.