Grade UE07: £40,247 to £47,874 per annum
School of Informatics / CSE
Full time: 35 hours per week
Fixed term: until 30th November 2025
The School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh invites applications for a Research Associate to work on the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) grant Hierarchical Motion Planning Framework for Realizing Long-Horizon Tasks, as part of the Moonshot Programme.
Hierarchical Motion Planning Framework for Realising Long-horizon Task
Having robots collaborating alongside humans and assisting them in daily life activities, such as tidying up, is extremely challenging.
Robots need to reason about how to split such complex tasks in to simpler subtasks, while being able to safely and robustly accomplish each of the individual subtasks. For instance, picking up the target object, then moving it to the front of the shelf, opening the shelf door, and finally successfully placing the object inside the shelf. Additionally, robots also need to be able to adapt their movements to unpredictable and dynamic changes, such as humans moving around, and to unexpected object properties, including the object turning out to be heavier or softer than anticipated.
In this project, in collaboration with Waseda University in Japan and under the auspices of The Alan Turing Institute, we develop learning and motion planning methods for realising long-horizon tasks that are adaptable and generalisable to objects of various properties.
We use the example of stacking several boxes with different hidden properties, such as mass or even the contents, that require the robot to change the high level (long-horizon) plan, as well as the robot motion itself -- such as how fast it should move.
This project directly contributes to the Goal 3 of the Moonshot programme: Realisation of AI robots that autonomously learn, adapt to their environment, evolve in intelligence and act alongside human beings, by 2050.
For more information on the Goal 3 of the Moonshot programme check: Moonshot Programme Goal 3
The Opportunity
The postholder will support the Principal Investigator in achieving the goals of the project, under their direction.
The salary for this post is £40,247 to £47,874 per annum.
Your skills and attributes for success:
The successful candidate will be required to closely engage with a network of Japanese project partners, as well as assist the University of Edinburgh team to navigate Japanese language and culture.
Click to view a copy of the full job description (opens new browser tab)
Application Information
Please ensure you include the following documents in your application:
- CV
- Cover letter
Contact details for informal enquiries: Sethu Vijayakumar [email protected]
As a valued member of our team you can expect:
Championing equality, diversity and inclusion
The University of Edinburgh holds a Silver Athena SWAN award in recognition of our commitment to advance gender equality in higher education. We are members of the Race Equality Charter and we are also Stonewall Scotland Diversity Champions, actively promoting LGBT equality.
Prior to any employment commencing with the University you will be required to evidence your right to work in the UK. Further information is available on our right to work webpages (opens new browser tab)
On this occasion the University will not consider applicants requiring sponsorship for this role. International workers will therefore only be able to take up this role if they can demonstrate an alternative right to work in the UK.
Key dates to note
The closing date for applications is 20 December 2024.
Unless stated otherwise the closing time for applications is 11:59pm GMT. If you are applying outside the UK the closing time on our adverts automatically adjusts to your browsers local time zone.
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