The development of soft actuators is a rising trend in robotics because of their promise of more robust, resilient and energy efficient designs. However, light weight and flexible structures are more susceptible to damage than conventional rigid actuators. Underwater environments, hostile or inaccessible for humans, are perfect applications areas for dependable robotics – robustness, fault tolerance and resilience are necessary to work autonomously in places where mistakes and failures are very expensive. Therefore, it makes sense to incorporate self-healing materials into flexible underwater robot designs. Therefore we are looking for a well-motivated member of our team to work on new ideas for self-sensing flexible underwater actuators. More specifically, the aims are
- proposing new design principles for damage sensing of soft actuators considering their mechanical design, sensing capabilities and control principles
- developing physical prototypes and testing them
- proposing, testing and validating new approaches for modelling and control of the actuators
- publishing the results in scientific journals and conferences
Formal requirements:
-The position is open for Early Stage Researchers (ESR), it means researchers who don’t have a doctoral degree yet and are in the first four years of their research careers. For the detailed definition see MSCA ITN guidelines.
-Completed university degree (Mag., Dipl.-Ing. or MSc.)
-Compliance with the mobility rules laid out in the MSCA ITN guidelines: At the time of recruitment, candidates must not have legally resided or have had their main activity in the country of their host organization.
Other requirements for the candidate:
-Degree in natural science or engineering, most preferably in mechanical engineering, applied physics, control engineering or computer engineering.
-Strong theoretical background and practical skills in robotics, control engineering and/or physics.
-Good teamworking skills, independent thinking and creative problem solving.
We provide
-A friendly, supportive, internationally well-connected research team and state-of-the-art experimental facilities.
-Innovation-oriented academic environment with excellent industry ties
-Additional educational program in both Taltech and in the SMART project network involving training schools, workshops and summer schools
-Internationally competitive salary as per MSCA guidelines http://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/). The salary includes a living allowance, a mobility allowance and a family allowance (if already married). The guaranteed PhD funding is for 26 months with the possible extension on agreed terms.
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