The centre has major facilities for development of autonomous systems including air, ground and subsea robots. Our field robotics laboratory includes a well-equipped electronics fabrication and assembly area; near-field and far-field anechoic test facility; environmental test chamber; individual robot assembly and testing bays; a flight-vehicle fabrication laboratory; a large-vehicle high-bay; 3T overhead crane; and a mechanical workshop. ACFR also has access to a 20,000 acre remote site, complete with 1000ft runway and aviation danger zone activated by NOTAM for full field testing.

UAVs or aerial vehicles are also known as remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) by global aviation regulators, and commonly referred to as drones. Our UAV laboratory is equipped with rapid-prototyping tools and facilities to develop novel UAV flight systems and support flight operations. We have a Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) approved UAV flight test facility at one of our university farms in Marulan (a 2.5-hour drive from Sydney) where we have 20,000 acres of available airspace up to 2000ft AGL.

There is an indoor laboratory in the aeronautical engineering building with OptiTrack motion-capture cameras to facilitate small UAV flight experimentation. Active research projects undertaken include exploring innovations in design concepts to meet the increasingly demanding operational requirements relating to cruise efficiency, runway-independent launch and recovery; novel applications for autonomous flight systems; and pushing the limits on miniaturisation of practical flight platforms. In addition to the development of innovative flight platform systems, our expertise and experience in designing, optimising and operating UAVs remain invaluable in ensuring affirmative cross-disciplinary research outcomes to take advantage of autonomous remote flight capabilities.

A flight simulator is any system that attempts to reproduce the experience of flying as realistically and accurately as possible. The School’s Flight Simulation Facility (FSF) houses a total of six different types of flight simulators that provide research opportunities and teaching experience to the students.

The main simulator is a state-of-the-art Eight360 NOVA simulator. It features a 360-degree virtual reality cockpit that replicates the experience of piloting any aircraft, from an A380 to a spaceship. Mechanically, it is realised via an untethered freely mobile ball resting on rollers that provides unlimited rotational axes, which makes complex movements like spinning and inverted flight possible. It has the potential to be used for simulated space environments, including controlling crewed vehicles on planet surfaces.

In addition to the Eight360 NOVA simulator, the FSF sports two motion simulation chairs, two static simulation chairs, and one procedural training simulation, that together allow multiple students to experience different aircraft stability characteristics at the same time.

The Formula Society of Automotive Engineers Australia (FSAE-A) Lab services Sydney Motorsport, the University of Sydney's FSAE-A Team. Each year FSAE students design, manufacture and test the team's small, electric, open-wheeled race car over a twelve month period, competing annually at the Formula SAE-A Competition in Victoria, which includes teams from around the world.

The FSAE-A Lab is a multidisciplinary space, which includes machining and fabrication equipment, a composites workspace, and an electrical area. The facility allows students to assemble and test each subsystem, gaining hands-on experience across the full design-to-manufacture process.

The School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering operates a number of wind tunnel facilities. These are extensively used for teaching, research and industry consultation. The two main units are the "7ft x 5ft" low-speed tunnel which has the capacity to test large models up to 1 or 2 metres in length for speeds ranging from 0 to 30 m/s and the "4ft x 3ft" low-speed smooth-flow tunnel which permits flows to be run up to 60m/s and includes a "10ft x 8ft" return section configured for boundary layer testing at speeds up to 30m/s. In addition a number of smaller closed circuit and blow-down tunnels are available for a variety of tests and calibration work. All tunnels are fitted out with state-of-the-art instrumentation and data recording systems for the measurement of air-loads, pressures and flow fields.