The Newcastle Robotics Laboratory is an interdisciplinary research and training initiative of several robotics related research teams from different research areas including applied mathematics, architecture, computer science, control, electrical engineering, neuroscience, mechatronics and software engineering.

A significant market growth in robotics and smart technology related areas has been predicted for the coming years. The Newcastle Robotics Laboratory addresses this development by providing world-class training of experts and applying cutting-edge research in robot control, computer vision, communications, data analysis, localisation, machine learning, space perception, world modelling, and human-robot interaction to a variety of innovative tasks and projects.

The lab's activities reach from outreach to school students (RoboCup Junior), our various robotics related undergraduate degrees, postgraduate degrees, and workshops, to industry placements and large-scale research projects.

Central to the lab has been for more than twelve years the NUbot team (RoboCup world champions in 2006 and 2008) that uses the Kid-Size Humanoid robot soccer league domain as a well-defined test bed to develop solutions for wider application in other research and application areas. These days the lab comprises a variety of research projects and is linked to several research groups and centres including CDSC, CIBER, CIBM, RobotX , the Helicopter Team and HMRI.

Research areas

  • Adaptive Control
  • Artificial Emotions
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Classification and Clustering
  • Companion Robots
  • Computational Neuroscience
  • Data Mining Techniques
  • Digital Control
  • Digital Image Processing
  • Dimensionality Reduction
  • Evolutionary Computation
  • Extended Kalman Filters
  • Flexible Distribution Functions
  • Feedback Control and Regulation
  • Manifold Learning
  • Motor Control and Legged Locomotion
  • Neural Networks
  • Reinforcement Learning
  • Robot Programming
  • Software Engineering
  • Support Vector Machines
  • Vision Systems

Projects