Pipebots is Recruiting! Research Associate in Robot Navigation

Posted on Thursday, May 2nd, 2019
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Research Associate in Robot Navigation

Contract Type: Fixed-term, 36 months
Location: Amy Johnson building

Summary:

Are you interested in working for a world top 100 University? A great opportunity has arisen for a research associate to join a prestigious Programme Grant funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and led by the University of Sheffield. The project aims to develop a new swarm robotics technology platform for buried pipe inspection which can measure the pipe conditions (e.g. leaks and blockages) and their deterioration autonomously and pervasively.

Your part will be to develop, test and integrate new robot mapping and localisation algorithms in small robots, which will be able to navigate, communicate and sense the environment while being left inside the pipe. A key outcome of this Grant will be the specification of the new sensing platform and signal processing algorithms to be used by the industry as the next generation of autonomous inspection solutions for buried pipes. This new technology will yield a step change in the way the buried pipes are inspected, rehabilitated and managed.

This role offers you the opportunity to develop new mapping and localisation algorithms for robots in pipes, simulate their performance, to integrate these algorithms with a working robot prototype and to validate their simulated performance experimentally. It is expected that the results of this work will be sufficiently novel and significant to warrant their publication in world leading academic journals.

The successful candidate will have strong theoretical and experimental skills, experience in robotics (or a related discipline such as control engineering or mechatronics) and have the ability to write computer code and analyse experimental data efficiently. Candidates with experience in optimisation and/or statistical estimation would also be suited to the role. You should be self-motivated, able to work both independently and as part of a large, trans-disciplinary team, and have the ability to present and communicate complex information to our partners and potential customers in a concise and clear form.

You will hold a good BEng/MEng level degree (minimum 2:1) and a PhD in Engineering, Physics, Computing, Mathematics or related discipline.

The post holder must be willing to undertake frequent travel within the UK and overseas.

The successful candidate will enjoy the support of the academic experts at our Faculty of Engineering and our non-academic partners and have access to the top of the range laboratory and computing facilities at the University of Sheffield.

Please contact for any further information Dr Sean Anderson at s.anderson@sheffield.ac.uk or on 0114 222 5608.

Apply online:  HERE