Robotics and Mechatronics labs
Learn how to program robots and operate autonomous vehicles.
Robotics Lab
The Robotics Laboratory is used by our undergraduate and postgraduate students.
You'll learn how to program robots for industrial and human-robot interaction applications.
You’ll also have access to the following equipment:
- Kinova 7 dof Gen 3 Robotics Arms
- Robotiq 2F-85 Grippers
- AR set HTC - VIVE XR Elite
- Vive Base Station 2.0 with Vive Tracker 3.0.
Autonomous Vehicles Lab
This lab is home to eleven Quanser QBot 3 robots, advanced mobile platforms you can use to explore autonomous navigation. You can also use the facilities to create a local Wi-Fi network.
You’ll be able to make use of our software licenses to program and use the robots using Simulink, a powerful graphical programming environment for designing and simulating control systems.
There’s also a seamless simulator of the robot, which can be used as a substitute for the real robots during teaching.
Automation and Mechatronics Lab
The Automation and Mechatronics Lab provide some of our Robotics and Mechanical Engineering students with hands-on experience in automation and mechatronics.
This lab features a small-scale modular production line with both physical and digital twin components, including:
- nine Siemens SIMATIC ET 200 Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs)
- three Festo industrial cameras (Compact Vision Systems SBOC-Q)
- a variety of binary and proximity sensors
- a 6 DOF Mitsubishi MELFA RV-2F robotic arm
- various pneumatic and electrical actuators.
In lab sessions, you’ll engage in practical activities that help you to:
- design and maintain production systems
- program PLCs using Siemens TIA Portal and ladder diagrams
- utilise Festo CheckKon and CheckOpti to program industrial cameras for quality inspections
- program the Mitsubishi MELFA RV-2F robotic arm for assembly tasks.
Control Lab
Our newly upgraded control lab offers you advanced resources for learning control systems. The lab includes:
- seven Quanser QUBE-Servo modules, for mastering DC motor control in speed and position
- seven rotary pendulum systems, to help students develop stabilizing controllers
- seven Quanser Aero systems, modular setups for studying aerospace system control, including a 2 DOF helicopter and half-quadrotor
- computers equipped with Quarc software and Matlab/Simulink, for modelling systems, designing controllers and testing them in real-time.
These resources support Year 2, Year 3, and Year 4 (MEng) students in Robotic and Mechatronic Engineering and Electrical and Electronic Engineering, as well as MSc Robotics and Autonomous Systems students.
With this equipment, you’ll enhance your control skills by applying various control approaches from your coursework, such as:
- linear control
- discrete control
- state-space control
- nonlinear control
- adaptive and optimal control.