Computing and Robotics

 Overview:

Computing is increasingly fundamental to everyday life and The Diamond has hundreds of computers available for students to use across open access study spaces and within bespoke computer labs designed specifically for teaching. 

In addition to this, our new digitally enabled flat floor teaching spaces allow students to learn on their own devices, and allow us to teach to classes of up 360 students at any one time. 

Our high specification computer laboratory has 42 workstations with high-performance graphics cards and processors coupled to 3D capable monitors. These are used by students for Parallel Computing, Modelling and Simulation, or any course that needs complex graphics or computations.

Robotics is becoming more and more prevalent throughout our society, and our undergraduate engineers and computer scientists learn how to program real robots and develop robotics skills that will equip them for a career in this industry. The Diamond is home to a range of cutting edge robotics hardware to support this hands-on practical teaching and our largest computer room is also home to a purpose-built robot arena. Here our robots can be programmed (using Python, Java, C++) to complete real-world robotics tasks such as navigation, object detection and avoidance, colour detection and robot-human interaction.

Students will learn:

• How to develop software using languages such as C++, Python and Java.
• Program robots to interact with real-world environments and complete real-world tasks using data from devices such as cameras, microphones, displacement sensors.
• Learn how to harness the Robot Operating System (ROS), an industry standard robot programming framework.
• Learn about parallel computing, modelling and simulation and programming with high-spec GPUs.

What equipment is in this lab?

• 50 TurtleBot3 Waffles
• 40 MiRos
• 88 Lego Mindstorm EV3s

Links to other Departments:

• Computer Science
• Automatic Control and Systems Engineering
• Electronic and Electrical Engineering

Which staff are in this lab?

• Dr Tom Howard, University Teacher

Request Use of Equipment:

Please email t.howard@sheffield.ac.uk with:

• Your name
• Your degree & year of study
• What equipment you want to use and why

Please allow 3-5 working days for a response.