Research Fellow in Robotics (Manipulation) - Metallurgy and Materials

Position Details

4 vacancies available
School of Metallurgy and Materials
Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK
Full time salary is normally in the range of £30,395 to £39,609. With potential progression once in post £42,036
Grade 7
Full time fixed term contract for 12 months
Closing date: 9th October 2019

Job Summary

Four new PDRFs are sought to work on robotic manipulation within the Extreme Robotics Lab at University of Birmingham.

The main purpose of these Research Fellow positions will be to develop, implement and demonstrate novel methods for control of robotic manipulation and mobile robots, for handling complex materials in important industrial applications. The RFs will be responsible for key deliverables of major national and international projects, as part of a large and internationally recognised robotics research team, with strong collaborations with industry.

Main Responsibilities

The responsibilities may include some but not all of the responsibilities outlined below.

• To use your expertise in robotics, and associated knowledge (vision, sensing, AI, dynamics, control, variable autonomy and shared control) to work with a team to develop integrated robotic systems for practical applications, driven by major industrial and societal problems.
• Within the project scope of our funded research projects, generate your own novel ideas that progress beyond the current state-of-the-art in robotic manipulation.
• Develop new methods for combining these ideas with, and/or adding new directions to, the UoB robotics research portfolio.
• To understand the project scope, and appreciate the practical industrial applications which motivate our robotics, vision and AI research.
• To engage with highly interdisciplinary teams of collaborators, including non-roboticist researchers with expertise in different and diverse disciplines.
• Work with the PI and other team members to plan initial research directions.
• Independently take responsibility and leadership for delivering state-of-the-art research results in accordance with these plans.
• Take initiative and show leadership in extending these research directions in new ways.
• While having expertise in robotic manipulation, be also willing and able to collaborate with experts in vision, learning and AI, to help develop integrated vision-guided robot control methods.
• Independently understand the relevant recent literature, in order to plan experiments and papers.
• Plan experiments and gather the data needed to publish your ideas in leading international journals and conference proceedings.
• Write up your work as papers, of sufficient quality to be published in leading international journals and conference proceedings.
• Travel to, and independently present your work at, international conferences.
• Present your work, in a clear and informative way, at project meetings which include collaborators from other disciplines.
• To assist with mentoring and training PhD students.
• To travel to industry collaborators, and help with implementing Birmingham's novel research methods on their robotic testbeds.
• To travel to, and work with, other university and academic collaborators, to deliver integrated systems as deliverables for major projects.
• If necessary, assist the PI and university IP advisors with managing and securing IP that you have created.
• Assist the PI with developing new funding proposals.
• To assist with specifying and procuring equipment for the lab.
• To assist with management/administration arising from research where needed.
• To deal with problems that may affect the achievement of research objectives and deadlines.
• To take personal responsibility for ensuring that your parts of project deliverables are completed.

Scope of the role

• Work within specified research grants and projects.
• Operate within area of specialism.
• Collaborate with team members with different areas of expertise to your own.
• Analyse and interpret research findings and results.
• Assist with mentoring and training PhD students, interns and/or Masters-level research students.

The UoB robotics team are collectively working on:

• Robotic grasping and manipulation
• Planning and reasoning for fixed and/or mobile manipulators.
• Robotic vehicles and navigation.
• Robot dynamics and control.
• Computer Vision, machine learning and AI.

The Research Fellow should have demonstrated strong expertise in at least one of these areas, and also be willing and able to assist with combining and integrating work from at least one other of these areas. In particular we are looking for new team members with expertise in planning and control of robotic manipulators, but with ability to collaborate with experts in vision and sensing, and also domain experts in industrial applications who are not themselves roboticists.

Skills and Experience

• Honours degree in a numerical discipline.
• Qualification in a robotics-focused master's degree or equivalent post-graduate level training.
• A PhD in robotics with a strong emphasis on manipulation.
• Post-doctoral experience in a high calibre robotics team.
• Strong programming skills, including extensive knowledge and experience in C++. Matlab, Python, JAVA also desirable.
• Ability to use ROS, OpenCV, PCL and other relevant open-source software libraries.
• Some experience in 3D vision, i.e. working with point-cloud data and devices, is also desirable.
• Ability to work independently and use initiative to develop own research goals and ideas.
• Outstanding time management skills - ability to keep an extremely ambitious project moving according to strict deadlines.

Planning and Organising

• Contribute to the planning and organising of the research programme and/or specific research project
• Co-ordinate own work with other UoB researchers to avoid conflict or duplication of effort.
• Work independently and with others to keep the project to plan.
• Assist with collaborative experiments and research activity with national and international collaborating institutions.

Decision Making

• Decide in consultation with the principal investigator as appropriate, on the most appropriate way of undertaking the specified research activities
• Decide in consultation with the principal investigator as appropriate how to analyse and interpret the data from the specified research activities
• Decide in consultation with the principal investigator as appropriate what knowledge to draw on and how to apply it to develop new intellectual understanding
• Decide in collaboration with co-authors which aspects of the research findings to include in a presentation or a publication and how to convey the findings

Internal/External Relationships

• Liaise with research staff and support staff on research-related matters
• Liaise with external collaborators on the research, where appropriate
• Liaise with partner institutions in UK, Europe and globally, who are collaborating on closely related projects.
• Occasionally assist the PI with refereeing articles for peer-reviewed academic journals.

Informal enquiries should be made to Dr Alireza Rastegarpanah at a.rastegarpanah@bham.ac.uk

We value diversity at The University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community