Engineering themes

Hands as machines

Geoff Watts

Shadow Robot Company’s mechanical Dexterous Hand is being employed to do the jobs that human hands cannot.

Learning code with robots

Richard Hopkins FREng

Engineer Richard Hopkins FREng uses his robotic designs to inspire young people and encourage them to pursue an interest in engineering. 

Robotic assistance

Geoff Watts

Engineering researchers are developing robotic systems that are assisting doctors during surgery, helping to make procedures more efficient and reducing the time that patients have to spend in the operating theatre.

Hives of activity

Neil Cumins

Ocado’s new automated warehouse in Erith has thousands of robots collaborating to pick and pack customer grocery orders.

The automation of dairy farms

Geoff Watts and John Baines

Robotiic milking is not a new innovation but the systems are increasingly being adopted by UK dairy farms and are now being engineered to do more than just milk cows.

Robotics and AI – driving the UK’s industrial strategy

Professor Guang-Zhong Yang CBE FREng

Professor Guang-Zhong Yang CBE FREng sets out how investment in robotics and AI could improve innovation in the UK and secure our place as a world leader in the technologies.

Engineering personality into robots

Richard Gray

Advances in technology are being used to give robots character and making the futuristic machines seen in sci-fi films real

Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, Engineering award winners, Living without electricity report, The UK STEM education landscape, Bridge building in Rwanda, UK student wins international engineering prize, British rocket propels Juno to Jupiter

Assuring safety and security in RAS, The future of energy storage

Martyn Thomas CBE FREng and Dr Jill Cainey

Professor David Lane CBE FREng rightly emphasises the need to build public trust in these systems (‘Robotics and autonomous systems – affecting everything that moves’, Ingenia 67).

Intelligent prosthetics

Richard Gray and Professor Saeed Zahedi OBE FREng

Blatchford has been awarded the 2016 Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award for its prosthetic limb with smart robotics

Robotics and autonomous systems - affecting everything that moves

Professor David Lane CBE FREng

A revolution in smart machines will affect all sectors of the UK economy and our personal lives. The UK has made a promising start but Professor David Lane CBE FREng argues there is more to do