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Project information We seek a talented and motivated new PhD student to join our team at the University of Bristol. The successful applicant will join the largest centre for multidisciplinary robotics research in the UK. This project will apply cutting-edge robotics and machine learning approaches to advance the physical intelligence of robots toward human-like bimanual object manipulation. The studentship will be based in Bristol Robotics Laboratory and the University of Bristol, co-supervised by Prof. Nathan Lepora (https://lepora.com/) and Dr Efi Psomopoulou. The role is part of a €7M Horizon Europe-funded project on pushing the limit of physical intelligence and performance of robots, particularly in bimanual manipulation. The student will have the benefit of being part of a large international collaboration of many leading European research groups in robotic manipulation, and a vibrant team of postdoctoral and PhD researchers in the Dexterous Robotics group (https://www.bristolroboticslab.com/dexterous-robotics). The project introduces a novel technological framework for enabling robots to perform complex object manipulation tasks, allowing them to efficiently manipulate highly diverse objects with various properties in terms of shape, size and physical characteristics similarly to how humans do. We particularly focus on bimanual manipulation robots that can operate in challenging, real-world, possibly human-populated environments, and we further research, develop and fuse the necessary technologies in robot perception, cognition, mechatronics and control, to allow such, human-like, efficient robotic objects manipulation towards step changes in contemporary service robots. The position will be based at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory (https://www.bristolroboticslab.com/) the largest centre for multidisciplinary robotics research in the UK. It will operate within the internationally-leading Dexterous Robotics Group at Bristol Robotics Laboratory, which is an exciting and vibrant research group with several recent lecturer appointment, 25 researchers and a range of state-of-the-art robot equipment. You will use dedicated facilities and expertise from the Robotics Lab in addition to those of the Faculties of Engineering and Science at the University of Bristol and project partners. You will be working in a team with the two supervisors, a postdoctoral Research Associate and a Research Technician (both to be advertised soon). We are intending to recruit other PhD students to the team to provide a cohesive and supportive environment for the members. Start date The post starts on November 1st 2023 and lasts for 3.5 years. Application process Please contact Dr Efi Psomopoulou (efi.psomopoulou[at]bristol.ac.uk) and Professor Nathan Lepora (n.lepora[at]bristol.ac.uk) for more details about this post and to apply. Applicants should send a short CV (2 pages max) and 1-page personal statement describing why they are interested in the post. Personal statement: Please also provide a personal statement that describes your training and experience so far, your motivation for doing a PhD, your motivations for applying to the University of Bristol, and why you think we should select you. We are keen to support applicants from minority and under-represented backgrounds (based on protected characteristics) and those who have experienced other challenges or disadvantages. We encourage you to use your personal statement to ensure we can take these factors into account. We will keep applications open until the post is filled. Funding information This is a fully-funded PhD studentship at standard UKRI rates (currently £18,022 for 2023/24 year). Home fees for UK and Irish residents will be covered. There will be additional funds from the project grant for equipment and travel that are substantially in excess of those usually available for PhD studies. NOTE: This scholarship covers tuition fees for UK and Irish citizens and EU applicants who have been resident in the UK for at least 3 years (some constraints are in place around residence for education) and have UK settlement or pre-settlement status under the EU Settlement Scheme. International students can apply but would need to cover the difference between home and overseas fees.
The Institute of Robotics and Cognitive Systems at the University of Lübeck has a vacancy for an Assistant Professorship (Juniorprofessur) Tenure Track W2 for Robotics for an initial period of three years with an option to extend for a further three years. The future holder of the position should represent the field of robotics in research and teaching. Furthermore, the holder of the professorship shall establish their own working group at the Institute of Robotics and Cognitive Systems. The future holder of the position should have a very good doctorate and demonstrable scientific experience in one or more of the following research areas: Modelling, simulation, and control of robots, Robot kinematics and dynamics, Robot sensor technology, e.g., force and moment sensor technology, Robotic systems, e.g., telerobotic systems, humanoid robots, etc., Soft robotics and continuum robotics, AI and machine learning methods in robotics, Human-robot collaboration and safe autonomous robot systems, AR/VR in robotics, Applications of AI and robotics in medicine. The range of tasks also includes the acquisition of third-party funds and the assumption of project management. The applicant is expected to be scientifically involved in the research focus areas of the institute and the profile areas of the university, especially in the context of projects acquired by the institute itself (public funding, industrial cooperations, etc.). The position holder is expected to be willing to cooperate with the “Lübeck Innovation Hub for Robotic Surgery” (LIROS), the 'Center for Doctoral Studies Lübeck' and the 'Open Lab for Robotics and Imaging in Industry and Medicine' (OLRIM). In teaching, participation in the degree programme 'Robotics and Autonomous Systems' (German-language Bachelor’s, English-language Master’s) as well as the other degree programmes of the university’s STEM sections is expected.
Texas Robotics at the University of Texas at Austin invites applications for tenure-track faculty positions. Outstanding candidates in all areas of Robotics will be considered. Tenure-track positions require a Ph.D. or equivalent degree in a relevant area at the time of employment. Successful candidates are expected to pursue an active research program, to teach both graduate and undergraduate courses, and to supervise students in research. The University is fully committed to building a world-class faculty and we welcome candidates who resonate with our core values of learning, discovery, freedom, leadership, individual opportunity, and responsibility. Candidates who are committed to broadening participation in robotics, at all levels, are strongly encouraged.
At RobotiXX lab, we perform robotics research at the intersection of motion planning and machine learning, with a specific focus on deployable field robotics. The selected candidates will conduct independent research to develop highly capable and intelligent mobile robots that are robustly deployable in the real world with minimal human supervision, and publish papers in top-tier robotics conferences and journals.
Texas Robotics at the University of Texas at Austin invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position at the rank of Assistant Professor with a tenure home in the Mechanical Engineering department. Outstanding candidates in all areas of Robotics will be considered, with emphasis on novel hardware and control techniques. Successful candidates are expected to pursue an active research program, to teach both graduate and undergraduate courses, and to supervise students in research. The University is fully committed to building a world-class faculty and we welcome candidates who resonate with our core values of learning, discovery, freedom, leadership, individual opportunity, and responsibility. Candidates who are committed to broadening participation in robotics, at all levels, are strongly encouraged.
Medical instruments such as endoscopes, catheters, and industrial inspection tools are long and thin instruments which typically deploy by translation of their body relative to their environment. This mode of locomotion poses some sets of limitations. Indeed, friction with the environment can cause these tools to damage their environment. This is the case for medical applications such as colonoscopy, for instance, where the pushing action involved in advancing a colonoscope can induce large mechanical stresses on the delicate tissues and cause bleeding. In addition, such instruments may fail to deploy in industrial contexts such as the inspection of a pipe network, due to added friction in successive turns. To solve this challenge, inflatable, bio-inspired robots called “vine” robots have been proposed in the literature. Vine robots are inflatable, bio-inspired robots which grow at the tip to deploy. To have such characteristics, vine robots are composed by a thin tube everted in itself at the tip. When pressurized, the material stored inside, called the vine robot tail, translates and reaches the tip where it everts. The material everted at the tip then forms the vine robot body, which remains stationary with respect to the environment. These robots have been advantageously proposed for medical applications such as the deployment in the vasculature, in the mammary duct, in the intestine, and for industrial and larger scale applications such as growth in granular environments, inspection of archaeological sites, and for search and rescue operations. Most applications require a passageway for tools, i.e. a working channel, in order to provide direct access to the robot tip from the base. This enables tools to be inserted and swapped, in order to perform some tasks. Tasks can include the use of cameras and light sources for site visualization, laser, grippers and cutting tools in surgical applications, or the transmission of water or goods for search and rescue applications. Recently, several research have tackled the inclusion of such working channels in vine growing robots, including recent work of the PI, which enables working channels in miniaturized vine robots, thanks to material scrunching. However, while previous work focused on the deployment of these robots, it was shown in the literature that their retraction remains a significant unsolved challenge. This issue prevents their practical use, as well as their adoption by the industry, and thus presents a major challenge for the adoption of these robots. In particular, while vine robots with working channels seem the most useful from an application perspective, only the retraction of vine robots without working channels has been explored to date. Therefore, the goal of this thesis will be to propose general multi-scale solutions for the retraction of vine growing robots with working channels. Applications in the medical and industrial fields will be proposed to show the benefits of the investigated solutions, in challenging contexts.
Medical instruments such as endoscopes, catheters, and industrial inspection tools are long and thin instruments which typically deploy by translation of their body relative to their environment. This mode of locomotion poses some sets of limitations. Indeed, friction with the environment can cause these tools to damage their environment. This is the case for medical applications such as colonoscopy, for instance, where the pushing action involved in advancing a colonoscope can induce large mechanical stresses on the delicate tissues and cause bleeding. In addition, such instruments may fail to deploy in industrial contexts such as the inspection of a pipe network, due to added friction in successive turns. To solve this challenge, inflatable, bio-inspired robots called “vine” robots have been proposed in the literature. Vine robots are inflatable, bio-inspired robots which grow at the tip to deploy. To have such characteristics, vine robots are composed by a thin tube everted in itself at the tip. When pressurized, the material stored inside, called the vine robot tail, translates and reaches the tip where it everts. The material everted at the tip then forms the vine robot body, which remains stationary with respect to the environment. These robots have been advantageously proposed for medical applications such as the deployment in the vasculature, in the mammary duct, in the intestine, and for industrial and larger scale applications such as growth in granular environments, inspection of archaeological sites, and for search and rescue operations. Most applications require a passageway for tools, i.e. a working channel, in order to provide direct access to the robot tip from the base. This enables tools to be inserted and swapped, in order to perform some tasks. Tasks can include the use of cameras and light sources for site visualization, laser, grippers and cutting tools in surgical applications, or the transmission of water or goods for search and rescue applications. Recently, several research have tackled the inclusion of such working channels in vine growing robots, including recent work of the PI, which enables working channels in miniaturized vine robots, thanks to material scrunching. However, while previous work focused on the deployment of these robots, it was shown in the literature that their retraction remains a significant unsolved challenge. This issue prevents their practical use, as well as their adoption by the industry, and thus presents a major challenge for the adoption of these robots. In particular, while vine robots with working channels seem the most useful from an application perspective, only the retraction of vine robots without working channels has been explored to date. Therefore, the goal of this thesis will be to propose general multi-scale solutions for the retraction of vine growing robots with working channels. Applications in the medical and industrial fields will be proposed to show the benefits of the investigated solutions, in challenging contexts.