Research Associate

The University of York is looking for a Research Associate to develop new cognitive architectures for Manufacturing Robots, working with a multi-disciplinary team of researchers from the Universities of York and Southampton as well as industrial collaborators. This work is supported by a 24 month Research Grant awarded by the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). The novelty of this project lies in the application of robot envisioned digital mental models to support them in creativity and imagination of morphological informed solutions to problems encountered in manufacturing (and other sectors outside manufacturing) as well as to support the application of previously learnt skills to new similar tasks.

Department

This work will be carried out in the Department of computer science in collaboration with various industrial partners in the University of York’s £15 million state-of-the-art Institute for Safe Autonomy. The Institute for Safe Autonomy is UK’s first research centre dedicated to the design, development, safety and communications for robotics and connected autonomous systems. The Institute provides a world-leading ecosystem for research and innovation, education, public engagement and commercial realisation. 

The University of York is part of the research-Intensive Russell Group of Universities in the United Kingdom which inject nearly £87 billion into the national economy every year. Russell Group members have a strong role and influence within their regional and local communities, collaborate with businesses on joint research projects and supply highly-qualified and highly-motivated graduates to the local workforce.

Role

You will be working with Dr John Oyekan and Dr Erich Graf to develop a novel cognitive architecture based on the psychological concept of envisioning to bootstrap digital mental models for artificial creativity on manufacturing robots. The digital mental models will be used by the robots to support them in creativity and imagination of morphologically informed solutions to problems encountered in manufacturing. The optimal solutions will then be applied by the robots on real world industrial use cases defined by the industrial partners. 

Skills, Experience & Qualification needed

We expect you to have a BEng/MEng, 1st or 2.1 degree in Engineering, Physics or Mathematics as well as PhD in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics or Mathematics or the equivalent experience (including near completion of a PhD).

It is also advantageous to have experience in robotics or a related discipline such as control engineering or mechatronics, good working knowledge of relevant computer programming languages and simulation packages such as MATLAB, Python, C/C++, VREP and ROS. A working knowledge of developing algorithms to interface with sensors and processing the datastreams as well as of physics based modelling, optimisation and/or state estimation methods is essential. We would also be looking for the ability to write up research work for publication in high profile conferences, journals and to engage in public dissemination. 

Interviews are expected to be in the week of the 6th of November, 2023. 

For informal enquiries: Dr John Oyekan at john.oyekan@york.ac.uk.

The University strives to be diverse and inclusive – a place where we can ALL be ourselves.

We particularly encourage applications from people who identify as Black, Asian or from a Minority Ethnic background, who are underrepresented at the University. 

We offer family friendly, flexible working arrangements, with forums and inclusive facilities to support our staff. #EqualityatYork

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