PhD Student Position in Mobile Robotics, Reinforcement Learning and Planning

Key Skills

AI Robotic systems, Machine learning techniques, Mathematics, Reinforcement Learning, Statistics

Job Description

The Robot Learning research group is seeking a talented PhD student with strong interest in Mobile Manipulation, Reinforcement Learning, and Planning.

The main task of the PhD student will be to develop methods for mobile manipulation and information gathering and utilize them on our Boston Dynamics Spot robot with a Spot arm. The goal is to allow robots to operate in unstructured partially observable real-world environments where the environment changes and is not fully observable. The methods will be evaluated in real-world environments found on construction sites and other settings.

The developed methods may be based on one of our focus areas including, but not limited to, reinforcement learning and planning under uncertainty. The exact direction of the research is chosen depending on your experience and interests. Please relate clearly to some of the research topics in your Letter of Motivation.

Outstanding researchers from the areas of Robotics, Machine Learning, and AI and related areas including Reinforcement Learning, Control Engineering, Computer Vision, Statistics & Optimization, or Mathematics & Physics are welcome to apply. The candidate is expected to conduct independent research and at the same time contribute to the topics listed above. Successful candidates will be furthermore given the opportunity to work with undergraduate and M.Sc. students.

The research group collaborates with research groups in construction, computer vision, robotics, mobile heavy machines, human-robot interaction, reinforcement learning, imitation learning, multi-agent systems, under-water vehicles, and robot motion planning. Moreover, one of the PhD students in the research group is located at the Intelligent Autonomous Systems institute at TU Darmstadt, Germany, so there will be ample opportunities for international collaboration.

WE OFFER

The position will be filled for a period of 4 years (2 + 2). The starting date is in January 2023 or as mutually agreed. The salary will be based on both the job requirements and the employee’s personal performance in accordance with the salary system of Finnish universities. The starting salary for a PhD student is approximately 2600 EUR/month.

We offer a wide range of staff benefits, such as occupational health care, flexible working hours, excellent sports facilities on campus and several restaurants and cafés on campus with staff discounts. The position is located at the Aalto University Otaniemi campus which can be easily reached by public transport.

HOW TO APPLY

Please submit your application through our online recruitment system. To access the recruitment system, please use the “Apply now! link below. The closing date for applications is December 18th, 2022 (23:59 EET (GMT+2)).

Please write your application and all the accompanying documentation in English and attach them in PDF format. Please attach only the following documents to your application:

• A letter of motivation describing your research interests and how the research fits to the Robot Learning research group (max. 1 page)
• Curriculum vitae (including the contact details of two referees)
• A list of publications as a part of the curriculum vitae
• PDF copy of your MSc and BSc degree certificates, including transcripts of all MSc and BSc university records (grades and courses) and their English translations (Finnish and Swedish certificates are also accepted)

Please note that our recruitment system allows max 5 attachments, so please combine the copies of certificates and transcripts in one PDF, if necessary.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

For further information, please contact Assistant Professor Joni Pajarinen, joni.pajarinen@aalto.fi. For additional information in recruitment process related questions, please contact HR Coordinator Camilla Hanganpää, camilla.hanganpaa@aalto.fi.