Robotics and Autonomous Systems

Edinburgh Centre for Robotics and Ocean Systems Laboratory

The Ocean Systems Laboratory is a multidisciplinary science and engineering research centre that innovates, applies and teaches world class advances in autonomous systems, sensor modelling/processing, and underwater acoustic system theory/design for offshore, marine science, renewable energy and security applications. We are a key member of the Joint Research Institute in Signal and Image Processing in partnership with Edinburgh university. We joined forces with Edinburgh Institute for Perception Action and Behaviour (IPAB) to create the Edinburgh Alliance in Robotics and Autonomous Systems (EDU-RAS). EDU-RAS harnesses the potential of over 50 world leading investigators from 16 cross disciplinary research groups and Institutes across the School of Engineering & Physical Sciences and The Department of Computer Science at Heriot-Watt University and the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh. It's research and training focus is on the broad classes of physical and cognitive interactions between robots, people, environments and autonomous systems.

The Edinburgh Centre for Robotics is leading in the UK effort to realise its industrial potential in this revolution, by producing a new generation of highly skilled researchers, trained to take a central role through technical skill coupled to industry and market awareness.

The centre produces ‘innovation ready’ postgraduates equipped through technical preparation, and cohort-wide training with scientific, creative, ethical and enterprise skills, in programmes supported by User partners operating in RAS crucial market sectors including oil and gas, defence, renewable energy, healthcare, assisted living, transport, space, automotive, manufacturing, nuclear, digital media and education. 

With £7.2M of capital equipment the ROBOTARIUM was established. This is a unique integrated facility including humanoids, interactive spaces, field robots, 3D printing and sintering, micro sensor assembly and micromaterial processing for fabrication with state of the art multi-core computing accelerators. More infromation on the Robotarium can be found on the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics website.

Edinburgh Centre for Robotics and Ocean Systems Laboratory Research Video

Physical Human-Robot Interaction and Assistive Robotics

The pysical human-robot interaction and assistive robotics research group aims to develop both robotic assistance and robotic training technologies for industrial and medical applications.

Their research focuses on three aspects:

1. understanding human behavior and human factors in manipulation tasks within the actual task environment

2. design, control, and implementation of robotic assistants to help humans in these tasks by using knowledge of human behavior and human factors

3. design, control, and implementation of robotic trainers to ameliorate and speed up training of novice subjects.One of the streams of their research is fine manipulation tasks requiring professional skills, such as manual welding in industry and minimally invasive surgery in medicine.

The group target at simultaneous hand-impedence measurements with an interactive robot, recording of electromyogram and (EMG) signals from arm muscles, and monitoring brain activity with near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). They use the knowledge derived from these measurements to develop the control of robotic assistants and develop robotic trainer systems. They also target ergonomic and psychological aspects to increase the acceptability of such technologies in manufacturing, operation, and training environments.

For more information please contact Dr Mustafa Suphi Erden