The "Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial (IRI), CSIC-UPC", is seeking a PhD student to work under the framework of the project "KINODYN: Kinodynamic planning of efficient and agile robot motions"

The PhD student will be supervised by Dr. Lluís Ros and Dr. Enric Celaya, and s/he will be incorporated into the Kinematics and Robot Design Group.

ABOUT IRI:
IRI is a Joint University Research Institute participated by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) that conducts research in human-centered robotics and automatic control. The institute is a key player in the Spanish robotics and automatic control scenes, and a valued participant in a large number of international collaborations including more than ten ongoing H2020 projects and an ERC Advanced Grant. Recently, is has been recognized as a Maria de Maeztu Excellence Unit, the main accreditation given by the Spanish Government to research units that stand out for the impact and international relevance of their results.

ABOUT THE RESEARCH THEME OF THE PhD STUDENT POSITION
The broad theme is kinodynamic motion planning and control, i.e., the planning and control of robot motions taking into account the dynamic model of the robot, and any limits in its actuation and constraint forces. The goal is to develop algorithms for planning and controlling collision-free dynamically feasible trajectories in robots of general architecture. These trajectories, in addition, should minimize energy consumption or execution time, depending on the application. The research topic, thus, lies at the intersection of robot dynamics, control theory, motion planning, and trajectory optimization. The PhD thesis would be focused on solving open problems in such topic, also taking into account the interests of the candidate.

ABOUT THE CONTRACT
A four-year PhD position will be fully covered by an FPI grant under the Spanish Government Call "Ayudas para contratos predoctorales para la formación de doctores 2018". The gross salary is 16422 Eur/year. In addition, there are secured funding to cover the attendance to national and international conferences, journal publication costs, research stays abroad, and lab experiments.

If you are interested, please send an e-mail to jobs@iri.upc.edu at your earliest convenience, including: (1) a letter explaining your motivation to pursue fundamental research in the mentioned theme, (2) your CV, and (3) your full academic record. Although the candidate selection will be done by the host group, the required paperwork will be coordinated and supervised by the Spanish Ministry of Science. The official application deadline by the Ministry is October 29th, but send us your documentation no later than 19th.

Contacts

Please, send your documentation before 19/10/2018 to: