Innovation

Inside UK's largest robotics lab

By // May 10, 2012, 2:35 AM PST // nickjheath

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  • The largest robotics laboratory in the UK officially opened on Thursday - bringing together an array of humanoid, flying and intelligent robots under one roof.

    The Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL) houses 70 academics and businesses conducting research into nouvelle and service robotics, intelligent autonomous systems and bioengineering.

    Research projects at the lab include developing robots that can power themselves using sugar or dead flies, unmanned flying bots and work to develop robotic muscle and organs.

    Professor Chris Melhuish, director of BRL, said: "Our interdisciplinary research focuses on key areas of robot capabilities and applications ranging from human-robot interaction, medical robotics, soft robots with artificial muscles, giving robots a sense of touch, to autonomous flying robots and robots that turn biomass into energy."

    The facility, which cost more than £1.65m ($2.65m), covers 2,400 square metres and includes two flying arenas and more than 300 square metres of specialised laboratory space. The lab is a partnership between UWE Bristol - the University of the West of England - and the University of Bristol.

    Photo: Bristol Robotics Laboratory

  • This is Bert 2, which has been designed to study how robots interact with humans.

    The robot is equipped with an expressive digital head, torque sensors, an artificial skin and agile limbs.

    Bert 2 is being used to develop a robot capable of interacting with the world and other people using natural-looking human gestures, such as pointing at an object it wants or passing an item to a person.

    Photo: Bristol Robotics Laboratory

  • Researchers work on developing a robot with enough touch-sensitivity to be able to grasp a paper cup without crushing it.

    Photo: Bristol Robotics Laboratory

  • The artificial heads shown here are used in humanoid robot research. The lab is using robotic heads to explore how a bot could mimic the subtle changes in facial expression that occur during human-human communication.

    The lab has a range of projects aimed at developing robots that can interact with people. The plan is eventually to combine these projects to produce a robot that will be able to mimic human gestures, facial expressions, speech, non-language utterances and body positions convincingly, and interact with people safely.

    Photo: Bristol Robotics Laboratory

  • A technician works on micro-engineering a robot hand at the BRL.

    Photo: Bristol Robotics Laboratory

  • Researchers here are working on the Symbrion project, a Europe-wide programme to develop a pack of small bots that swarm together to form a larger robotic organism.

    The aim is to create an artificial organism made up of swarming bots that can communicate and coordinate their own actions, and which will eventually be capable of self-configuring, self-healing, self-optimising and self-protecting.

    Photo: Bristol Robotics Laboratory

  • Research is taking place into how robots can power themselves using foodstuffs and other sources from the natural world.

    The lab is developing microbial fuel cell technology to extract electrical energy from refined foods such as sugar and unrefined foods such as insects and fruit.

    The fuel cells are being used to power a series of robots, such as Ecobot I and Ecobot II.

    Ecobot II is being developed to run on rotten fruit or dead flies. Researchers believe that if robots are to be autonomous it will be important for them to be able to extract energy from the environment, in the same way that animals do by eating food.

    Photo: Bristol Robotics Laboratory

  • A robotics engineer at work in the lab.

    Photo: Bristol Robotics Laboratory

  • The device in the foreground, a haptic controller, is being used to control the robot manipulator arm in the background.

    Photo: Bristol Robotics Laboratory

  • This is RoboThespian, a life-sized humanoid robot designed to be an automated interactive actor.

    The bot can be controlled over the internet, allowing users to see what it sees, make it move or tell it what to say.

    It was created to educate, communicate, and entertain by Engineered Arts and is being used by BRL in several research projects.

    Photo: Bristol Robotics Laboratory

The largest robotics laboratory in the UK officially opened on Thursday - bringing together an array of humanoid, flying and intelligent robots under one roof.

The Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL) houses 70 academics and businesses conducting research into nouvelle and service robotics, intelligent autonomous systems and bioengineering.

Research projects at the lab include developing robots that can power themselves using sugar or dead flies, unmanned flying bots and work to develop robotic muscle and organs.

Professor Chris Melhuish, director of BRL, said: "Our interdisciplinary research focuses on key areas of robot capabilities and applications ranging from human-robot interaction, medical robotics, soft robots with artificial muscles, giving robots a sense of touch, to autonomous flying robots and robots that turn biomass into energy."

The facility, which cost more than £1.65m ($2.65m), covers 2,400 square metres and includes two flying arenas and more than 300 square metres of specialised laboratory space. The lab is a partnership between UWE Bristol - the University of the West of England - and the University of Bristol.

Photo: Bristol Robotics Laboratory

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By Nick Heath

Nick Heath is chief reporter for TechRepublic. He writes about the technology that IT decision makers need to know about, and the latest happenings in the European tech scene.