Robotics and autonomous systems (RAS) are set to shape innovation in the 21st century, underpinning research in a wide range of challenging areas: the ageing population, efficient health care, safer transport, and secure energy. The UCL edge in scientific excellence, industrial collaboration and cross-sector activities make it ideally placed to drive IT robotics and automation education in the UK.
The programme provides an overview of robotic and computational tools for robotics and autonomous systems as well as their main computational components: kinetic chains, sensing and awareness, control systems, mapping and navigation. Optional modules in machine learning, human-machine interfaces and computer vision help students grasp fields related to robotics more closely, while the project thesis allows students to focus on a specific research topic in depth.
Students undertake modules to the value of 180 credits.
The programme consists of four core modules (60 credits), two to four optional modules (30 to 60 credits), up to two elective modules (30 credits), and a dissertation/report (60 credits).
Core modules
Optional modules
Students will need to choose a minimum of 30 and a maximum of 60 credits from the optional modules.
Please note: the availability and delivery of optional modules may vary, depending on your selection.
Students can also choose up to two elective MSc modules from across UCL Computer Science, UCL Mechanical Engineering and UCL Bartlett School of Architecture.
A list of acceptable elective modules is available on the Departmental page.
Dissertation/report
All students undertake an independent research project which culminates in a dissertation of 12,000 words.
Teaching and learning
Teaching is delivered by lectures, tutorials, practical sessions, projects and seminars. Assessment is through examination, individual and group projects and presentations, and design exercises.
Further information on modules and degree structure is available on the department website: Robotics and Computation MSc
Four MSc Scholarships, worth £4000 each, are made available by the Department of Computer Science to UK/EU offer holders with a record of excellent academic achievement. The closing date will be in June 2018. For more information, please see the department pages.
For a comprehensive list of the funding opportunities available at UCL, including funding relevant to your nationality, please visit the Scholarships and Funding website.
Robotics is a growing field encompassing many technologies with applications across different industrial sectors, and spanning manufacturing, security, mining, design, transport, exploration and healthcare. Graduates from our MSc programme will have diverse job opportunities in the international marketplace with their knowledge of robotics and the underpinning computational and analytical fundamentals that are highly valued in the established and emerging economies. Students will also be well placed to undertake PhD studies in robotics and computational research specific to robotics but translational across different analytical disciplines or applied fields that will be influenced by new robotic technologies and capabilities.
Employability
This programme prepares students to enter a robotics-related industry or any other occupation requiring engineering or analytical skills. Graduates with skills to develop new robotics solutions and solve computational challenges in automation are likely to be in demand globally.
UCL received the highest percentage (96%) for quality of research in Computer Science and Informatics in the UK's most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF2014).
With the external project involvement anticipated, students on this programme will have the opportunity to interact and collaborate with key companies in the industry - Airbus, Shadow Hand, OC Robotics and Intuitive Surgical - and work on real-world problems through industry-supported projects.
Recent investment across UCL in the Faculty of Engineering and The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment has created the infrastructure for an exciting robotics programme, which will be interdisciplinary and unique within the UK and Europe.
Robotics and autonomous systems (RAS) are set to shape innovation in the 21st century, underpinning research in a wide range of challenging areas: the ageing population, efficient health care, safer transport, and secure energy. The UCL edge in scientific excellence, industrial collaboration and cross-sector activities make it ideally placed to deliver this MRes, which uniquely covers the whole spectrum of potential RAS areas and application.
The programme teaches students the essentials of robotic and computational tools for robotics and autonomous systems. The key aim of the principal project thesis is to cultivate a deep understanding of robotics research, with a particular focus on a specific research topic in robotics and autonomous systems.
Students undertake modules to the value of 180 credits.
The programme consists of one core module (15 credits), two to three optional modules (30 to 45 credits), up to two elective modules (30 credits), and a dissertation/report (105 credits).
Core modules
Optional modules
Students must choose a minimum of 30 and a maximum of 45 credits from Optional modules. Students must also choose a minimum of 15 and a maximum of 30 credits from Electives.
Please note: the availability and delivery of modules may vary, based on your selected options.
A list of acceptable elective modules is available on the Departmental page.
Dissertation/report
All students undertake an independent research project which culminates in a dissertation of 30,000 words.
Teaching and learning
Teaching is delivered by lectures, tutorials, practical sessions, projects and seminars. Assessment is through examination, individual and group projects and presentations, and design exercices.
Further information on modules and degree structure is available on the department website: Robotics MRes
Scholarships relevant to this department are displayed below.
For a comprehensive list of the funding opportunities available at UCL, including funding relevant to your nationality, please visit the Scholarships and Funding website.
Robotics is a growing field encompassing many technologies with tremendous opportunities for research and development both in industry and in academia, and with diverse applications across different industrial sectors spanning manufacturing, security, mining, design, transport, exploration and healthcare. Graduates from our MRes programme will will have project-focused experience and knowledge in robotics and the underpinning computational and analytical fundamentals. These skills will position graduates to be well placed to undertake PhD studies or industrial research and development in robotics and computational research specific to robotics but translational across different analytical disciplines, or applied fields that will be influenced by new robotic technologies and capabilities.
Employability
The MRes will develop skills widely relevant to a career in engineering industries and analytical problem-solving occupations. Graduates with skills to develop new robotics solutions and solve computational challenges in automation are likely to be in high demand globally.
UCL scored highest among UK universities for the quality of research in Computer Science and Informatics in the Research Excellence Framework (REF2014).
With the external project involvement anticipated, students on this programme will have the opportunity to interact and collaborate with key companies in the industry - Airbus, Shadow Hand, OC Robotics and Intuitive Surgical - and work on real-world problems through industry-supported projects.
Recent investment across UCL in the Faculty of Engineering and The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment has created the infrastructure for an exciting robotics programme, which will be interdisciplinary and unique within the UK and Europe.
This course is for students who already have a strong engineering background and wish to specialise in robotics and automation. This course has a particular emphasis on advanced robotics, where robots are designed to operate with a degree of intelligence.
You will gain a firm grounding in control engineering and intelligent systems concepts, along with the ability to comprehend and fully specify integrated automation systems embodying intelligence, robotic and automation hardware and software, and virtual reality (VR)/simulation technologies.
The course also provides a suitable background for research in advanced autonomous systems with reference to robotics.
You will be taught via a series of lectures and workshops with many of the modules taught via extensive hands-on practical lab-based sessions.
Practical experience includes the use of robotics platforms to produce a software system using the MATLAB toolboxes or the C programming language or to produce a finished hardware/software based mobile robotics system.
70% coursework and 30% examination.
There are dedicated labs and facilities for Robotics and Automation students, including: Industrial robots, flexi-picker, manipulators (Hitachi, KUKA) humanoid robots plus many mobile robots. Plus dedicated computing facilities
And if you do your MSc Project with an aerospace company, as many of our students do, then you will also have access to their facilities.
Graduates from this course can expect to find employment in a range of industries. Robotics and automation are continuously developing topics that present many career opportunities in areas such as robotic design, control systems integration and design, factory automation, engineering management and research.
Many of our students work on final year projects in conjunction with aeronautical companies associated with the University.
Many of our students go on to further study at the Centre for Advanced Robotics which is very closely linked with this course.
Robots have the potential to revolutionise society and the economy, working for us, beside us, and interacting with us. This EPSRC-sponsored programme will produce graduates with the technical skills and industry awareness to create an innovation pipeline from academic research to global markets.
The robotics and autonomous systems area has been highlighted by the UK Government in 2013 as one of the eight Great Technologies that underpin the UK's Industrial Strategy for jobs and growth. Key application areas include manufacturing, assistive and medical robots, offshore energy, environmental monitoring, search and rescue, defence, and support for the ageing population.
The University of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University are jointly offering this innovative four-year PhD training programme, which combines a strong general grounding in current theory, methods and applications with flexibility for individualised study and a specialised PhD project.
Robotics and autonomous systems are increasingly studied beyond the range of classical engineering. Today robots represent one of the main areas of application of computer science and provide challenges for mathematics and natural science.
It is impossible to imagine transportation, warehousing, safety systems, space and marine exploration, prosthetics, and many other areas of industry, technology and science without robots. Robots are used in theoretical biology and the neurosciences as a model of behaviour.
Areas of interest specific to the center include: movement control, planning, decision making, bio- and neurorobotics, human-robot interaction, healthcare applications, robot soccer, neuroprosthetics, underwater robotics, bipedal walking, service robots, robotic co-workers, computer vision, speech processing, computer animation realistic simulations, and machine learning.
Many more topics can be found be exploring the Centre’s web pages, particularly the personal web pages of the Centre supervisors:
Our four-year PhD programme combines Masters level coursework and project work with independent PhD-level research.
In the first year, you will undertake four or five masters level courses, spread throughout robotics, machine learning, computational neuroscience, computer architectures, statistics, optimization, sensorics, dynamics, mechanics, image processing, signal processing, modelling, animation, artificial intelligence, and related areas. You will also undertake a significant introductory research project. (Students with previous masters-level work in these areas may request to take less courses and a larger project.)
At the end of the first year, successful students will be awarded an MSc by Research by the University of Edinburgh. From this basis, the subsequent three years will be spent developing and pursuing a PhD research project, under the close supervision of your primary and secondary supervisors. The PhD will be awarded jointly by the University of Edinburgh and the Heriot-Watt University.
You will have opportunities for three to six month internships with leading companies in your area, and to participate in our industrial engagement programme, exchanging ideas and challenges with our sponsor companies.
Throughout your studies, you will participate in our regular programmes of seminars, short talks and brainstorming sessions, and benefit from our pastoral mentoring schemes.
Our user partners in industry include companies working in offshore energy, environmental monitoring, defence, assisted living, transport, advanced manufacturing and education. They will provide the real world context for research, as well as opportunities for reciprocal secondments, internships and involvement in our industrial engagement programme.
The School of Informatics holds a Silver Athena SWAN award, in recognition of our commitment to advance the representation of women in science, mathematics, engineering and technology. The School is deploying a range of strategies to help female staff and students of all stages in their careers and we seek regular feedback from our research community on our performance.
You will have access to the outstanding facilities in the Edinburgh Robotarium, a national facility for research into robot interaction, supporting the research of more than 50 world-leading investigators from 17 cross-disciplinary research groups.
Research groups at the Edinburgh Robotarium include humanoid movement control, underwater, land and airborne autonomous vehicles, human robot interaction, bio- and neuro-robotics, and planning and decision making in multirobot scenarios.
In addition, our research groups contain a diverse range of compute clusters for compute and data-intensive work, including a large cluster hosted by the Edinburgh Compute and Data Facility.
Our aim is to produce innovation-ready graduates who are skilled in the principles of technical and commercial disruption and who understand how finance and organisation realise new products in start-up, SME and corporate situations.
We intend for our graduates to become leaders in the globally emerging market for autonomous and robotic systems that reduce risk, reduce cost, increase profit and protect the environment. This vision is shared by our industrial supporters, whose support for our internship programme indicates their strong desire to find highly qualified new employees.
Our component research groups already have excellent track-records in post-graduation destinations, including the research labs of industry-leading companies, and post-doctoral research positions in top tier universities.
Robotics is on the cusp of an exciting new era as robots become more reactive, intelligent and human-like, as well as finding applications in a range of industries including consumer and healthcare robotics.
We are in the midst of an increase in the pace of technological change and the changes in the coming decade will be a magnitude of order greater than anything that has gone before. A paradigm shift is about to take place that will forever change society; our ability to manufacture novel robots and new artificial intelligence techniques will both change the way we interact with technology and will allow technology to interact with us and our world in a far more nuanced way.
This new MSc Robotics Engineering reflects recent software and hardware technological advances and exposes students to new, much sought-after skills and up-to-date areas of research. Recent technological advances are incorporated into the course by developing novel cross disciplinary approaches and subject areas such as Embedded Systems, Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality.
Robotics Engineering covers a wide range of specific topics such as:
The course will include an introduction to Robotics, covering topics such as actuators, sensors and mechatronics, with examples and categorization of robots (from mobile robots to robot arms and interactive robots); robotic applications including biomedical robotics (e.g. for minimally invasive surgery) and robotic rehabilitation, robotic hands (metamorphic hands, grasping and sensing) and industrial robotics; embedded systems and microcontrollers including the Internet of Things; the robot as a computational unit based on sensing, reasoning and action; Artificial Intelligence, navigation and machine learning. You will have the opportunity to develop the hardware and software for a robotic system.
Mechatronics, robotics and autonomous systems represent a range of important technologies which underpin many applications – from manufacturing and automation through to self-driving cars and robotic surgical tools.
Delivered by the Schools of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Computing, this programme will equip you with the specialist knowledge and wide range of skills to pursue a career in this dynamic field.
Core modules will give you a foundation in the many applications of mechatronics and robotics and develop your understanding of the wide range of industry sectors that use robotics. You’ll also build research skills with a major project in fields as diverse as robot swarms, sensing systems, bio-inspired robots and surgical robotics.
Diverse optional modules will allow you to focus on topics that suit your interests and career plans, guided by academics whose teaching is informed by their own world-class research.
Specialist facilities
The Faculty of Engineering is an exciting and stimulating environment where you’ll learn in specialist facilities. These include an ABB robotic manufacturing cell, the Embedded Systems Lab, the Keysight Technologies Communications Lab, the National Instruments LabVIEW Academy, and computer clusters with a very wide range of industry-standard CAD/CAE/CAM software packages.
The three Schools that deliver this programme collaborate in research projects within the themes of surgical robotics, rehabilitation robotics, exploration robotics and future cities.
This programme is designed for graduates of numerate disciplines who also have experience of programming. You will explore theories of intelligent robotic control and software tools required to implement standard algorithms in mobile robots and robot manipulators.
This, along with the chance to learn from world leaders in their field and to develop research and transferable skills, will effectively prepare you to either work in industry or pursue a research degree in robotics.
This is a one year full-time programme. You will take compulsory modules in which you will study robotics to an advanced level. You will also work on at least one mini-project. Here you will work one-to-one with one of our research-active staff to explore an area in great depth – analysing the problem and existing solutions, developing new ideas and building or evaluating prototype systems.
You will develop your skills in analysis, research, technology and also in presenting and explaining your work clearly and effectively. In addition, you will be able to take several optional taught modules from various fields. All students work on a research project in an area of robotics over the summer, again with expert one-to-one supervision.
Learning is via small lecture classes, problem-based workshops and one-to-one supervision.
There will be some group work as part of the taught modules and there may be opportunities for some industry-based projectwork. Most importantly, you will be part of a small, highly qualified group of students working closely with researchers within the Robotics lab.
Assessment is by both practical and written coursework and examination. Projects are assessed on the basis of a practical demonstration and a written report.
Through the course you will become a specialist in robotics. Our graduates are well equipped for software development roles in the robotics industry or research and development roles, and many go on to pursue a research degree in robotics.
University Careers Network
Preparation for your career should be one of the first things you think about as you start university. Whether you have a clear idea of where your future aspirations lie or want to consider the broad range of opportunities available once you have a Birmingham degree, our Careers Network can help you achieve your goal.
Our unique careers guidance service is tailored to your academic subject area, offering a specialised team (in each of the five academic colleges) who can give you expert advice. Our team source exclusive work experience opportunities to help you stand out amongst the competition, with mentoring, global internships and placements available to you. Once you have a career in your sights, one-to-one support with CVs and job applications will help give you the edge.
If you make the most of the wide range of services you will be able to develop your career from the moment you arrive.
Automation, control and robotics are pervasive enabling technologies found in almost every modern technical system, particularly in manufacturing and production. They combine the diverse and rapidly expanding disciplines of automation, control, mechanics, software and signal processing.
This course is ideal if you wish to develop comprehensive knowledge and understanding of • classical and modern control theory • industrial automation • systems analysis • design and simulation • robotics.
You gain the ability to apply principles of modelling, classical and modern control concepts and controller design packages in various areas of industry. You also learn how to design and exploit automation and robotic systems in a range of manufacturing and industrial applications.
The course has six core modules which cover the major aspects of industrial automation and control systems engineering and robotics, ranging from classical linear control system design to non-linear, optimal and intelligent control systems, including distributed control systems, robotics, computer networks and artificial intelligence.
You also choose two optional modules relevant to automation and control to suit your interests. For example, if you wish to work in the manufacturing industry you can choose manufacturing systems or machine vision. There is the opportunity to study one or two management modules if you wish to apply yourself to a more managerial role.
To gain the masters you complete a major research-based project, which can be focused on an area of your particular interest or career need.
You work alongside staff from the Electrical, Electronic and Control Engineering Group and the Centre for Automation and Robotics Research (CARR) at Sheffield Hallam. This provides the opportunity to work with active researchers.
This course is seeking accreditation by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) on behalf of the Engineering Council for the purposes of fully meeting the academic requirements for registration as a Chartered Engineer. The MSc will meet, in part, the exemplifying academic benchmark requirements for registration as a Chartered Engineer; graduates who have a BEng (Hons) accredited for CEng will be able to show that they have satisfied the further learning requirement for CEng accreditation.
Core modules
Options
Choose two from
MSc
This course provides you with the knowledge and skills for further advanced study in this area.
You can also apply your skills in an industrial setting for automated manufacturing, control system design, or in the wide range of industries that exploit intelligent robotics. Graduates from this course find career opportunities in areas including • automation and control • process and petrochemical • biomedical • manufacturing • energy • automotive • aerospace.
You can also pursue careers in engineering design and development, engineering research, engineering consultancy and engineering management.
Completing this course combined with further work-based experience enables you to gain Chartered Engineer status.
