Are you passionate about high-end technological design? Do you want to continue developing your skills with a combination of education and work? The Professional Doctorate in Engineering (PDEng) programme Robotics offers you a 2-year position combining post MSc education and a design project to be executed at Alliander.

The educational programme, carried out at the University of Twente, will have an in-depth and broadening character with ample attention for professional development and will be partly tailored to the design project. In collaboration with Alliander in Arnhem you will work on high level, creative new designs for complex issues.

About the project: Roboconnect, development of a robotic solution for live cable splicing
Due to the current energy transition, the demand on our electricity net is constantly growing. Currently 20.000 to 30.000 new connections should be made on a yearly basis and this number will increase in the coming years. Down time on the net is not an option, and therefore, new connections need to be build on a ‘live’ grid. In order to increase productivity and safety, we require new robotic solutions which is the main goal of this project.

• You will develop robotic solutions that can perform under difficult conditions performing tasks that are (too) dangerous for human operators;
• You will use state of the art mechatronics design, as well as tele-presence, haptic feedback, AI, and computer-vision to build a co-bot: a robot tool that can collaborate with the human operator in charge;
• You will work from the Robotics and Mechatronics lab, where there is much experience in all said topics, and you will collaborate directly with (field) specialists from Alliander.

• A MSc degree in Electrical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Industrial Design Engineering, Embedded Systems, Mechanical Engineering, Systems & Control, Telematics, Industrial Design, or a related robot-technical field.
• Proven affinity with design and multidisciplinary assignments;
• Passion for finding solutions for complex technological issues;
• Strong collaboration and communication skills;
• Self-starting and self-motivating, willing to take initiatives and feel the responsibility for your own project;
• Alliander is a Dutch company: although not required (basic) knowledge of the Dutch language is desirable.

Candidates with a non-Dutch qualification and who have not had secondary and tertiary education in English can only be admitted with an IELTS-test showing a total band score of at least 6.5, internet TOEFL test (TOEFL-iBT) showing a score higher than 90, or a Cambridge CAE-C (CPE).

• A full-time position for two years, with a salary of € 1.970,- gross per month, plus a holiday allowance of 8% and an end-of-year bonus of 8.3%;
• A tailor-made post-Master’s design programme combining education (50%) and working on a design project (50%);
• A solid pension scheme;
• Minimum of 29 holidays in case of full-time employment;
• Excellent facilities for professional and personal development.

On successfully completing the programme, you will receive a certified degree. You will be entitled to use the academic degree PDEng and will be registered as a Technological Designer in the Dutch register kept by the Royal Institution of Engineers in the Netherlands (KIVI).