As part of UK Robotics Week 2019, Sheffield Robotics, Enabling Sciences for Intelligent Manufacturing and the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) will be hosting an international manufacturing robotics challenge for young researchers, developers and industrialists working in robotics and digital manufacturing technologies.

The challenge will be held on 19 and 20 June at Factory 2050 at the AMRC in Sheffield (www.amrco.co.uk); it will bring together young researchers and engineers from different disciplines to develop practical solutions to real-world problems in a competitive environment.

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.

The successful applicants will be arranged into small teams, based on their skills and experience, and will be asked to complete a series of robotics challenges.

A £30 registration fee will be charged to successful applicants (applications close at midnight on 5 May).

The challenges will reflect real manufacturing scenarios, played out on the ‘state of the art’ Factory 2050 shopfloor, using its cutting-edge technology (such as industrial manipulators, augmented- and virtual-reality devices, 3-D printers and industrial vision and sensor systems).

The teams will develop software to control — as well as collect and process data from — robotic and digital platforms provided by the organisers for applications including mobile robot navigation, robotic inspection and repair, multi-robot co-ordination, human-robot interaction and tele-operation.