James Law

Dr. James Law serves as a Senior Experimental Officer at Sheffield Robotics and leads the Collaborative Robotics Group within the School of Computer Science at the University of Sheffield. He holds a joint appointment between the Department of Computer Science and the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, and serves as Director of Innovation and Knowledge Exchange at Sheffield Robotics. His work integrates academic research with industrial applications in advanced manufacturing.

His research focuses on human-robot collaboration, trustworthy autonomous systems, and responsible innovation in manufacturing robotics. Law develops safety assurance frameworks and digital twinning solutions for collaborative workspaces, with particular emphasis on trust engineering, user authentication, and graphical communication systems that reduce human anxiety in robot co-working environments. His interdisciplinary approach bridges computer science, engineering psychology, and industrial implementation requirements.

Law's publication portfolio demonstrates consistent advancement in collaborative robotics safety, with recent work (2022-2024) focusing on verified safety controllers, digital twin frameworks, and trust modeling in human-robot triads. His research shows progression from foundational developmental robotics (2010-2015) toward applied industrial solutions, with increasing emphasis on security, safety assurance, and human factors in manufacturing contexts.

As an active science communicator, Law serves on the UK Robotics and Autonomous Systems network (UK-RAS) management board and the EPSRC Early Career Forum in Manufacturing Research.

• EPSRC STAMAN: Robotic skill transfer for manufacturing (Co-PI, £1M+)
• Horizon Europe OpenSwarm: Energy-aware swarm orchestration (Co-PI, £463k)
• EPSRC Security of Digital Twins in Manufacturing (Co-PI, £775k)
• EPSRC UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Node (Co-PI, £3M)

Law leads the Collaborative Robotics Group and contributes to the Complex Systems Modelling research group, focusing on translating theoretical safety frameworks into practical industrial implementations through close collaboration with manufacturing partners and policy stakeholders.