Robotics

Robots are capable of working in extremes that humans find impossible or too dangerous. Lancaster is helping to create a safer future in the workplace.

Lancaster is helping to create a safer future in the workplace. Robots can work in extremes that humans find too dangerous, and for tasks that humans find repetitive, difficult, or impossible, such as lifting and assembling heavy components. We are developing intelligent control systems for robots, especially where these robots are for use in unstructured, uncertain, and hostile environments, such as for the nuclear and civil construction industries.

Our robotics equipment

Over the past decade, the School of Engineering has significantly invested in (or in some cases designed and built) numerous robotic platforms. Often, the research focus is to develop robots that can undertake tasks that are either too dangerous or laborious for humans. Some examples are illustrated below.

Automated racetrack and Camera/lighting Rig

The rig is designed to be fitted with high-quality cameras land lights located orthogonally to each other to be thus able to determine the exact position and orientation of any objects within it. Currently, a small wooden racetrack used for undergraduate projects and outreach activities is there. This is for such projects as using remotely-controlled cars to race an automated version.

BROKK-40

This mobile demolition machine has been used for wide-ranging research projects, including for the development of next-generation control systems. It has been used by the National Nuclear Laboratory and Sellafield Ltd at the NNL's Workington laboratory, for trials in relation to a Sellafield Ltd material discrimination project.

Quadcopters

Our quadcopters are fitted with sensors such as LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) in order to measure the ranges (or variable distance) from the copter to the Earth from the air.

KUKA KR180 Robots

Two very large manipulators (~4 m maximum height) capable of lifting a mass of up to 180 kg. They are used for heavy-duty tasks, such as sorting and segregating nuclear waste on a conveyor belt into low, intermediate and high-level waste bins.

Hydrolek HLK-7W Manipulators

These are hydraulically actuated manipulators with six rotary joints and a gripper or other tool. The present focus is to utilise the system's dual manipulators for research into both teleoperated and semi-autonomous tasks in the nuclear or construction sectors, such as the cutting of pipes.

Mobile robotic platform

Our mobile robotic platform is a basic device used in mobility, navigation, and mapping experiments.

Soft Pipe Crawling Robot

A bespoke 50mm diameter pipe crawling robot intended to characterise pipework in radiological environments. The robot uses vision-based artificial intelligence to navigate its way around pipe networks along with pneumatic actuation.

Robot and high RAM computer

We utilise these computers for our work in virtual reality.

Underwater Robotics

A bespoke continuum arm-based robot along with its commercially available underwater ROV platform (BlueRov2). These were part of a project to remove small samples from the cores at the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Universal Robots (UR3, 2 * UR5 & UR10)

Platforms designed to be used in research projects, via compatibility with numerous software environments such as C++, Python, MATLAB, ROS, etc. These robots have been used in applications such as for the automated scanning of personal protective equipment (PPE) from a research laboratory.