PhD Studentship: Agentic AI for Human-Robot Collaboration in Industrial Environments

Are you an outstanding and ambitious engineering or computer science graduate looking for the next challenge? Do you want to work at the frontier of artificial intelligence and robotics to enable the next generation of human-centred industrial systems?
We are seeking a talented PhD student to investigate Agentic AI for human–robot collaboration, focusing on how intelligent machines can understand goals, generate task plans, and work safely and effectively alongside human operators in industrial settings.

Recent advances in large language models (LLMs) and agent-based AI systems offer unprecedented opportunities for robots to interpret human intent, generate executable programs, and autonomously adapt their behaviour in dynamic environments. However, integrating these capabilities into real-world industrial workflows remains a major challenge. Manufacturing tasks often involve complex interactions, uncertain environments, and the need for seamless collaboration between people and machines.
This PhD project will explore how goal-driven AI agents can generate and execute robot programmes automatically while learning from and collaborating with human partners. The research will investigate hybrid approaches that combine generative AI, reinforcement learning, and human-in-the-loop learning to enable robots to understand tasks at a semantic level and translate them into robust physical actions.

You will join the Collaborative Systems research team in the School of Engineering at the University of Birmingham, working within a world-leading robotics environment with access to state-of-the-art robotic platforms, sensing systems, and digital twin technologies. The project will contribute to the development of intelligent collaborative machines for next-generation manufacturing systems.

What will you be doing?

• Investigating how large language models can generate goal-oriented robotic programs from natural language task descriptions and contextual information.
• Developing agentic AI architectures that allow robots to plan, reason, and adapt in collaboration with human operators.
• Exploring human–AI interaction mechanisms that enable robots to learn from human demonstrations, feedback, and shared task execution.
• Integrating perception, digital twins, and AI reasoning systems to enable context-aware human–robot collaboration.
• Testing and validating the developed approaches on industrial robotic demonstrators performing collaborative manipulation or assembly tasks.

You should apply if:

• You have, or are expecting to receive, a first or upper second-class degree in robotics, computer science, artificial intelligence, mechatronics, or a related discipline.
• You are a UK home student (or have equivalent status).
• You are interested in the intersection of AI, robotics, and human–machine collaboration.
• You have experience with programming (e.g., Python/C++), machine learning frameworks, or robotics software environments such as ROS.
• You are motivated to work in a multi-disciplinary research environment combining engineering, AI, and human factors.

What we offer

The successful candidate will receive full funding for tuition fees and a tax-free stipend, along with access to world-class research facilities and training opportunities. You will also benefit from mentoring and collaboration opportunities with academic and industrial partners working on the future of AI-enabled manufacturing.

If you are excited about developing the next generation of AI-powered collaborative robots that work seamlessly with humans, we would like to hear from you.

For informal enquiries, please contact Professor Niels Lohse (n.lohse@bham.ac.uk).

Funding notes:

A fully funded PhD position (tuition fees and standard EPSRC stipend) is available for UK students only. Equivalent funding is available for international students as contribution to cover part of the tuition fees.

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