The Department of Mechanical Engineering of the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) is looking for high-caliber candidates to fill two fully-funded PhD positions, to begin as soon as possible from January 2020. Both PhD projects will form part of a new major H2020 research and innovation project on impact-aware robotics, with application in the field of logistics. This project will involve 4 research institutions in the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Switzerland and four companies in the Netherlands, Sweden, and Germany, collaborating to develop cutting edge new robotics technologies to speed up physical take-and-put logistic processes. Both PhDs will have ample opportunities for travel and for interaction with the project's top academic and industry partners across Europe, and may also contribute to other robotics project currently running with the TU/e and its partners.
About usLocated in the Brainpoint region, which attracts 40% of all Dutch spending on research and development, the Eindhoven University ot Technology (TU/e) is one of the leading technical university in Europe, part of the prestigious EuroTech universities alliance, offering graduate engineering programs and post-graduate technological design, Ph.D and teacher-training programs. The mission of the TU/e is to educate students to become leading industrial professionals and academic scientists, to generate and valorize new cutting-edge scientific knowledge, by creating and supporting the industrial activities in the Brainport region and beyond.
The Dynamics and Control chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering conducts top-level research in the area of dynamics and control, with the emphasis on modeling, analysis and control of mechanical and mechatronic systems. Nonlinear dynamics and control, robotics, structural and vehicle dynamics are the focal areas of the program. Fundamental research is combined with numerical tools and supported by dedicated laboratory experiments. Teaching at undergraduate and graduate levels is a key integral part of the mission of the program, to provide students with state-of-the-art knowledge and skills.
PhD1: impact-aware dynamic modeling and validation - this project involves modeling/validation of impact models for known robots and objects from motion capture and robot proprioception sensor data. These models will serve as the basis to the envisioned impact-aware planning, learning, control, and sensing robot modules. Background in dynamics, robotics, computer vision, nonlinear control, and nonsmooth mechanics would constitute the ideal background for this project.
PhD2: impact-aware robot control - this project will look at impact-aware robot control, combining hybrid systems, nonlinear/hybrid control, nonsmooth mechanics, and QP robot control paradigms. In particular, we wish to further extend the cutting edge impact-aware robot control techniques that our group is developing (see, in particular, this recent PhD thesis on the subject:
https://pure.tue.nl/ws/files/107723936/20181126_Rijnen.pdf