Research Associate/Senior Research Associate in Swarm Robotics

The role

We’re looking for 2 Research Associates to help us engineer future robot swarms for cities.

The roles are part of a new 5-year EPSRC Open Plus Fellowship on Trustworthy Robot Swarms to Power City-scale Logistics. Our vision is that local production, distribution, and reuse of goods using robot swarms will enable a more sustainable future through reduced transport emissions & waste. This vision requires trusted swarms, large numbers of robots useable out-of-the-box, with little setup or infrastructure by local communities.

This project focusses on the core research questions in swarm engineering required to achieve this vision:

Beyond minimal robots: How to design distributed cognition for robot swarms?

Trustworthy design: How to enable human monitoring and control of trustworthy swarms?

We’re looking for researchers who can help design state-of-the-art swarm hardware for city deployments, cognition using edge-AI and perception, swarm algorithms for city-scale coordination, & interfaces for intuitive human-swarm interactions.

Discoveries will be validated in human-centric stories for city-scale logistics using cyber-physical infrastructure from digital twins and hardware testbeds to living labs in real environments.

Use cases will centre on robot swarms that can pick up, organise, store, and deliver items at a city scale. Impact will be demonstrated in local communities around Bristol. Through this process, and engagement with users, policy makers, and the public, we will build best practice in the responsible deployment of robotics research. This best practice will be disseminated to promote positive change in the research community.

What will you be doing?

• Perform state-of-the-art research in swarm robotics. Areas include swarm hardware design for city deployments, cognition using onboard edge-AI and perception, swarm algorithms for city-scale coordination, & interfaces for intuitive human-swarm interactions. Depending on your expertise, you will only focus on one or two of these areas.
• Translate results to physical testbeds (DOTS robots) and living labs (partner communities).
• Work within a multidisciplinary team and stakeholders to develop trustworthy swarms for city-scale logistics.
• Prepare conference and journal papers for publication.
• Participate in national and international conferences and workshops.

You should apply if

• You are working towards or have a relevant PhD degree or equivalent professional qualification/experience in Robotics, Engineering, Computer Science, Maths or closely related discipline (e.g. social science applied to technology).
• Expertise relevant to swarm robotics in one or more of these areas:
  • 1) hardware design for outdoor operation,
  • 2) cognition using onboard edge-AI and perception,
  • 3) automatic design of swarm algorithms,
• 4), interfaces for intuitive human-swarm interactions.
• Demonstrated expertise publishing results in journals and/or conferences.
• Experience demonstrating robots in reality.

Additional information

For informal queries please contact: Professor Sabine Hauert - sabine.hauert@bristol.ac.uk

To find out more about what it's like to work in the Faculty of Engineering, and how the Faculty supports people to achieve their potential, please see our staff blog:

https://engineering.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/category/engineering-includes-me/

Contract type: Open ended with fixed funding until 31/10/2027

Work pattern: Full-time (Part-time will be considered)

The grade of the role offered will be determined based on the skills, qualifications, & experience you bring to the position.

Interviews are expected to take place on Monday 15th December.

Our strategy and mission

We recently launched our strategy to 2030 tying together our mission, vision and values.

The University of Bristol aims to be a place where everyone feels able to be themselves & do their best in an inclusive working environment where all colleagues can thrive and reach their full potential. 

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