University of Lincoln

• Lincoln Centre for Autonomous System - CAS
• lncn.ac/ncnr
• Lead Investigator: Amir Ghalamzan

Integrating autonomous mobile navigation with tele-operated manipulation for the purpose of cleaning up deposits outdoors

The University of Lincoln is known for producing groundbreaking research on long-term control systems for mobile robots working in difficult environments. In its work with the NCNR, the team at Lincoln has developed outdoor robots that can cope with rough terrain and autonomously map their environments. This allows the machines to be used efficiently and long term in dangerous environments, as they are capable of avoiding radiation sources or locating them more efficiently. Autonomous machines can also be used to deploy additional sensors or end effectors, such as robot arms, soft robotics or multirotor UAVs.

The Lincoln Centre for Autonomous Systems Research (L-CAS), the University of Lincoln’s cross-disciplinary research group in robotics, specialises in technologies for perception, learning, decision-making, control and interaction in autonomous systems, especially those involving mobile manipulators. It also excels at integrating these capabilities in application domains including agriculture, nuclear robotics and space robotics, i.e., applications of robots in extreme environments. Among NCNR, L-CAS participates in a large number of collaborative research projects with other academic and industry partners, funded by the UK Research Councils, Innovate UK and Horizon 2020, among others. For instance, L-CAS is leading the £6.9m EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Agri-Food Robotics, with the Universities of Cambridge and East Anglia, and co-leads a £6.3m award from the UK Government’s Expanding Excellence in England (E3) Fund to create Lincoln Agri-Robotics, a global centre of excellence for agricultural robotics, in collaboration with the Lincoln Institute for Agri-Food Technology. L-CAS is one of the big robotics labs in the UK, a member of UKRAS and euRobotics