Young researchers and engineers will be challenged to find solutions to real-world manufacturing problems as part of a two-day robotics hack being held at the University of Sheffield AMRC.

Sheffield Robotics, Enabling Sciences for Intelligent Manufacturing and the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) - which is part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult - is hosting the UK-RAS Manufacturing Robotics Challenge 2019 as part of UK Robotics Week 2019.

It will be played out on AMRC’s state-of-the-art Factory 2050 shop floor on June 19 and 20, bringing together young researchers and engineers from different disciplines who will be tasked with using technologies such as industrial manipulators, augmented and virtual reality devices, industrial vision and sensor systems and 3D printers to find solutions to challenges reflecting real manufacturing scenarios.

The event is open to final-year masters students, PhD students, early-career researchers, industrial engineers and others with relevant experience in areas including robotics, autonomous systems, computer vision, machine learning and augmented reality.

Successful applicants will be arranged into small teams, based on skills and experience, and compete against each other to complete a series of robotics challenges. Teams will develop software to control, as well as collect and process data from, robotic and digital platforms including mobile robot navigation, robotic inspection and repair, multi-robot coordination, human-robot interaction, and teleoperation.

The number of places is limited and candidates will be shortlisted based on their applications, which close at midnight on May 5. For more information or to apply visit https://esim.ac.uk/news/uk-ras-manufacturing-robotics-challenge.