Bioinspired Vision Systems for Automated Harvesting

Application are invited for a PhD scholarship in “bioinspired vision systems for automated harvesting” at the University of Sheffield, UK.

Automation of labour intensive processes such as fruit harvesting is considered key to securing the long-term future of the UK horticulture industry. This project will investigate the crucial problem of rapidly and robustly segmenting fruits and flowers from background vegetation which is considered a key enabler of automated harvesting. Inspiration will be taken from the vision system of insects that solve exactly this issue (e.g. bees, fruit-flies, aphids) with the aim to develop novel hardware and software solutions based on key abstractions.

The selected candidate will benefit strongly from working in close collaboration with researchers at Sheffield Robotics (Dr Mike Mangan), University of Lincoln’s Institute for Agri-Food Technology (Prof Simon Pearson) & Centre for Autonomous Systems (Prof Tom Duckett) and with industrial partners ensuring tight coupling of academic output with commercial application.

You should have a good Bachelors or Masters degree in Computer Science, Electronic Engineering, Mathematics or Physics. You must also have excellent mathematical skills with experience in related areas such as optics, machine learning, computer vision software and hardware development all considered beneficial. You should be available to start work on the project in the spring of 2018.

Applicants should apply using the Apply button below or online at: http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/postgraduate/research/apply, including a covering statement and CV. Applications should list as the potential supervisor as Dr Michael Mangan (c/o Prof James Marshall) and choose the option "University of Sheffield Project studentship" when asked how you will fund the PhD. Applications must be received by 16th February 2018.

Informal enquiries should be directed to: Dr Mike Mangan ([Email Address Removed])

The Department of Computer Science, within the Faculty of Engineering, was established in 1982 and has since attained an international reputation for its research and teaching. In REF2014, the Department was ranked 5th out of 89 computer science departments in the UK, indicating that the large majority of our research is nationally or internationally leading. Further information about the Department can be found at http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/dcs.