This module is designed to provide necessary knowledge of various types of robotic systems and their key features to enable you to design your own systems later in the course. Controlling robotic systems requires a knowledge of control methods and techniques which can be implemented in software. For this reason this module is run in parallel with the module Software Engineering and Simulation of Robotic Systems

Utilizing the appropriate software packages for specific robotic system designs and applications and subsequent simulation works constitute an important part in robotics engineering, which is usually conducted before prototyping and production of a robotic system. This module equips students with the necessary knowledge of software tools to help them tailor make the general software engineering theory with the robotic design practice. The module develops students’ ability of modelling, simulating, designing, selecting and programming a mobile robot system. Students will gain an understanding of the software tools such as MATLAB and LabVIEW and their applications, as well as equip them to work with software packages for implementing kinematics, dynamics and control of robotic systems

The group project is designed to consolidate the knowledge and skills gained in the preceding modules. It is designed to provide students with the opportunity to develop their competence in undertaking projects through a systematic research and development process using a formal project management approach. It aims to enable students to develop skills and experience in problem solving and team working and to provide students with the necessary preparation for the major individual project in phase 3.

This module develops students’ knowledge and skill in integrating components that make up a robot into a functioning unit that is able to carry out higher level tasks.

The Individual Major Project is designed to consolidate the knowledge and advanced skills, gained in the preceding modules, and to provide students with the opportunity to develop and demonstrate mastery in undertaking advanced robotics projects in their future employment. The module aims to develop advanced skills and practical experience in planning, problem solving, and implementing robotics solutions and in making effective written and oral project presentations.

The module will develop a mastery of the modelling, simulation, design, selection and programming of robotic manipulators. Students will gain an in-depth understanding of kinematics, dynamics and control of industrial manipulators as well as practical experience of programming a manipulator. The theories and technologies presented in this course have influences beyond the scope of industrial robotics. At the end of the course, in order to broaden the students view they will be introduced to various new robotics areas where the technologies of industrial robotics have been applied. They will be shown what the new challenges are and how they are solved in these areas.

The field of medical robotics has grown rapidly from early exploratory experiments in the 1980s to the present situation where commercial systems are used routinely to help practitioners carry out surgical operations. Medical robots may be thought of as smart surgical tools that bring together the best qualities of robots (precision, accuracy, etc) with the best qualities of human experts (intelligence, adaptability). The synergy of robots and humans results in better outcomes than would otherwise be possible. Also, the information infrastructure associated with medical robotics (e.g. pre-operative imaging) have the potential to make computer-integrated surgery as important to healthcare as computer-integrated manufacturing is to industrial production. This module will look at the development of medical robotics from early experiments to the present. It will examine the key features of typical medical robotic systems such as pre-operative imaging, registration to the patient, robot design and evaluation of the outcomes. The two broad categories of surgical robots (hands-on and tele-manipulator) and haptic surgical simulators will be examined. We will look at mechanical design considerations (safety, sterility) and control paradigms (e.g. Semi-autonomous motion, tele-operator control, hands-on compliant control) specific to this area of robotics. Ethical and safety considerations will be key topics. Current and future research areas will be explored.

The module aims to develop students’ deep understanding, and the theoretical and practical skills necessary to enable them to design, construct, develop, implement and evaluate advanced sensor guided and controlled mobile robots.

The aim of the module is to familiarise students with Artificial Intelligence techniques that are widely used in robotics. The students will make extensive use of their own development of AI systems in robots, and will explore theoretical issues in AI and robotics.