The following positions are currently available at the AASS Mobile Robotics Lab.
One PhD student position
A PhD position in the area of autonomous robotics is available at the AASS Mobile Robotics Lab, Örebro University, Sweden. This is a 3-year PhD position fully funded within the EU project GeRT - "Generalizing Robot Manipulation Tasks".
Örebro University (www.oru.se) is a young university currently enrolling more than 15,000 students. It is located in Örebro, a city of 130,000 inhabitants situated in central Sweden at (59:16N,15:13E). More information about Örebro can be found, for example, at www.orebro.se. The AASS Mobile Robotics Lab is one of the three research groups within the Center for Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems (AASS). AASS carries out multi-disciplinary research at the intersection of robotics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, computer vision, computer science, and measurement technology. The research and human environment at AASS is young and enthusiastic. Researchers come from a dozen different countries, in Europe and worldwide, and have different scientific and cultural backgrounds. AASS also frequently hosts international researchers and is involved in several international projects. This means, particularly in the GeRT project, that the enrolled PhD student will have the opportunity to travel and to cooperate with people in other countries. Within AASS, the Mobile Robotics Lab is internationally renowned for its research in cognitive robots, robot ecologies and artificial olfaction. Further information can be found at www.aass.oru.se/Research/Robots/.
The GeRT Project. In order to work naturally in human environments such as offices and homes, robots in the future will need to be much more flexible and robust in the face of novelty than they are today. In the GeRT project we will address this problem by developing new methods to cope with such novelty in manipulation tasks. The overall aim of the GeRT project is to enable a robot to autonomously generalise its manipulation skills from a set of known objects to previously unmanipulated objects in order to achieve an everyday manipulation task. The platform that will be used within GeRT is the DLR robot Justin, an advanced robot with two arms with four-fingered hands (see, e.g., this video on YouTube).
The GeRT consortium consists of four European partners: the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Max Planck Institute from Germany, the University of Birmingham from Great Britain, and Orebro University from Sweden. More information about GeRT can be found at www.aass.oru.se/Research/Robots/projects.html#gert.
Tasks of the Student. The student will do research about hybrid planning for the robot in the context of the GeRT project. This means that, when planning for a task, the robot needs to reason both about the purposes of actions on a symbolic level, and about the kinematics and geometry of the robot and the objects it manipulate. Apart from working towards the PhD thesis, the enrolled PhD student will be involved in the project work, which is expected to include research visits to our European partners. The student will work under the joint supervision of Alessandro Saffiotti and Lars Karlsson. The student will receive a monthly salary adequate to the cost of living in Sweden, and will be included in the Swedish social security system.
Prerequisites: In addition to a clear interest in the research topic, to a strong theoretical background in computer science, and to solid programming skills, the applicant should have a Masters or equivalent degree in an appropriate field (including computer science, computer engineering, or robotics). Knowledge of the Swedish language is not required, but proficiency in written/spoken English is mandatory. Candidates with previous experience in artificial intelligence or in robotics will be preferred.
Application process: To apply for the position, please send a motivation letter along with an updated CV (including at least two academic references) by email to Prof. Alessandro Saffiotti (asaffio@aass.oru.se). Applications can be sent immediately and until January 31, 2010. We are looking forward to receiving your application!
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