Students at a Gloucestershire college have been getting to grips with the latest addition to its top of the line tech-toys - a FANUC Robot.

In its day job the robot, kindly supplied and installed by Witt Energy, is used in manufacturing processes such as automotive body shop assembly, welding, machining or even painting.

Using a FANUC R-2000IC 165F, learners at SGS Berkeley Green UTC (Gloucestershire's school for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)), will be able to create artificial sea waves to replicate wave profiles.

They will then review the data to learn how the waves can be exploited to generate energy.

In addition to the FANUC robot, the Berkeley Campus is said to house some of the best training facilities in the country for built environment, engineering and digital technologies (including cyber security).

Provision covers full and part- time training to learners from the age of 14 upwards including apprenticeships, adult re-training programmes and degree level learning.

Speaking about the new robot, Andy Keenan, assistant principal at Berkeley Green UTC, said: "FANUC offer the widest range of industrial robots in the world so having one at the UTC makes for terrific practical learning.

"Students do a lot of programming here but this opportunity will provide learners with first-hand experience programming industry standard equipment.

"A huge thank you to Witt Energy for providing the robot and working with us to produce the employees of the future."

For people interested in discovering what Berkeley Green UTC has to offer, The UTC and SGS College will be holding open events throughout 2019, with the next event scheduled for Saturday, January 26, 10:00 -13:00.