Dr Tom Charrett, Prof R P Tatam
No more applications being accepted
Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
About the Project
Application Deadline: 28th March 2016
Start Date: June 2016 – Oct 2017
Eligibility: UK, EU, International
Duration of award: 3 years
Ref: CRAN1093
Supervisors:
Dr Tom Charrett, Dr Thomas Kissinger and Professor Ralph Tatam – Engineering Photonics, School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing
A PhD studentship is available to undertake research into novel optical instrumentation for robotic manufacturing in conjunction with a current EPSRC project. The aim is to develop new optical instrumentation for the remote measurement of the relative motion and orientation between a robotic end-effector mounted sensor and the workpiece. The applications of these sensors are common to many areas of manufacturing and can be grouped into three main areas:
i) Stabilisation and control of robotic end-effectors relative to the workpiece.
ii) Motion tracking to lock the robot to a moving assembly line.
iii) Relative positioning operations.
In these application areas there is a need for new effective, low cost instrumentation to provide real-time feedback about their relative motion and orientations. The project will investigate two complementary measurement techniques; range-resolved interferometry and laser speckle correlation and will develop instruments applying these techniques alone or in combination using low cost telecoms illumination sources and small array detectors.
This project would suit candidates with a background in the physical sciences or engineering, who want to apply their skills and offers opportunities to learn/apply skills in FPGA (field programmable gate array) programming, electronics, data acquisition and signal processing. Opportunities for the application of the sensors on industrial robots are also anticipated.
Engineering Photonics at Cranfield provides a purpose built suite of first class laboratories, close links with industry and researchers from other disciplines and opportunities for students to present their work at international conferences and to publish in peer reviewed journals. The student will also have access to the University’s core skills training programme for PhD students.
Funding Notes
Applicants should have a first or second class UK honours degree or equivalent in a related discipline, such as engineering or the physical sciences, and / or an MSc in a relevant subject. They should also meet the university’s English language requirements (http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/Study/Research-degrees/Entry-requirements). Experience in photonics would be an advantage, but an ability to learn and to apply that learning are considered equally important as training will be given in the specific technology.
Fully funded: £14,296 p.a. stipend, tax free, Home/EU student tuition fees paid*.
* Stipend rate for 2016-2017, eligibility rules apply
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