Research position: 5 year contract

University of Coimbra, Mechanical Engineering Department

Main research field: Mechanical Engineering

Sub research field: Robotics and Automation

Job Reference: C2008 FCTUC - ROBOTICS

Job summary:

CEMUC (Centro de Engenharia Mecânica da Universidade de Coimbra), Laboratory of Industrial Robotics, is offering a 5 year contract for one position as research assistant to develop R&D in Robotics and Automation in the framework of the “cognitive factory” scenario. The researcher should reinforce this research line by participating in research projects, as leader or researcher, and by bringing young researchers to collaborate with the group under its supervision.

Job description:

The researcher recruited shall contribute to new and ongoing efforts in the area of Robotics and Automation, namely considering the “cognitive factory” scenario. This scenario embraces both the “co-worker scenario” and the “hyper-flexibility” scenario and take the classical concept of the flexible manufacturing systems to a new level. A cognitive factory will be composed of a multitude of machines with built-in sets of cognitive skills for adaptation – to the environment, to the manufacturing processes and objects, as well as to the human co-worker. Cognitive factories will, to a large extent, configure themselves and be fault-tolerant. They will contain autonomous robots jointly participating in the production process with their human counterparts. The cognitive skills needed include perception of assembly objects, perception of context conditions and the assessment of production results. Moreover, through “introspection” based on the integration of all available sensory information, models of context-specific operations of machines (and the output they produce) can be autonomously constructed. These models will enable the factories to further optimize themselves by modifying machine parameters and avoid failures, based solely on prediction.

The researcher should also participate in the ongoing FP7 EU projects where our group is a partner: SMErobot (http://www.smerobot.org, that focus on the co-worker scenario) and other FP7 projects (which focus on the cognitive factory scenario). The activity should be supported on the scientific and technological knowledge accumulated by the Research Unit.

The work conditions will be adequate to the research work to be developed and are guaranteed by CEMUC (Industrial Robotics Laboratory) through the available infrastructures that include equipment and specialized experimental techniques of analysis. The integration of the CEMUC (Industrial Robotics Laboratory) in thematic networks, the collaborations with other institutions of R&D and the regular update and acquisition of equipment assure the necessary conditions to the scientific development that is expected to achieve. The research work developed by the researcher will be presented and discussed in periodic meetings in CEMUC and published in international journals and conferences.

Reference information:

J. Norberto Pires, head of Industrial Robotics Laboratory: http://robotics.dem.uc.pt/norberto

Industrial Robotics Laboratory: http://robota.dem.uc.pt/robotics_lab/

Team: http://robotics.dem.uc.pt/norberto/nova/team.htm

Documents:

In the applications the following documents must be sent out:

· Cover Letter;

· Curriculum vitae, updated and signed, with reference to the ISI publications and indication of email;

· Certificates;

· Interests and motivation letter (describing the motivations to pursue the job the candidate is applying and his specific interests and academic goals);

· A brief Research plan (maximum 3 pages).

The name and contact information for 2-3 persons who can provide a letter of recommendation, if needed.

Applicants should send all required documents as pdf files to: cemuc@dem.uc.pt with copy to norberto@robotics.dem.uc.pt. Mail subject must include the job reference.

Requirements:

Main Research Field: Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Physics Engineering

Research Sub-Field: Robotics and Automation

Years of Research Experience: Three

The candidate should have a PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science or Physics Engineering, or related fields, with particular expertise Robotics and Automation and own at least 3 years of post-doctoral experience with an international-level publication record and demonstrated ability to do independent research.

Language 1: English

Priority: High

Reading: Excelent

Writing: Excelent

Comprehension: Excelent

Conversation: Excelent

Selection Committee:

Luís Filipe Martins Menezes - https://woc.uc.pt/dem/person/ppgeral.do?idpessoa=19

J. Norberto Pires – http://robotics.dem.uc.pt/norberto

António Fernando Ribeiro - http://www.dei.uminho.pt/~fernando/

Bruno Siciliano - http://wpage.unina.it/sicilian/

Salary

From 2067.91 € to 3101.87 € (per month) depending on qualifications.

Dates: this position is OPEN until 30 of September 2008