Multi-skilled Engineering Technician

As a global leader in its field, the Department of Bioengineering is a fast-paced multi-disciplinary department, where scientific and engineering specialisms combine, with a focus on solving medical applications with a scientific and engineering approach. We are pleased to announce the creation of a new rehabilitation core facility and a technician role within The Department of Bioengineering.

The Multi-limb Virtual Environment (MUVE) is a new multi-user core facility based in Imperial College’s White City campus. It enables human-centric research and development, with approaches that combine upper and lower limb physical interaction with locomotion. This is the only system worldwide to enable physical interaction with arms, legs, and supernumerary robotic limbs in dynamic virtual environments.

MUVE combines the most advanced treadmill-based virtual reality motion suite currently available with: i) 2 powerful collaborative robot interfaces that interact with the user’s arms, ii) 4 lightweight wearable robotic arms for movement augmentation, and iii) dedicated sensorimotor interfaces from our laboratories such as high-density EMG sensors, soft exoskeletons, advanced soft prostheses, and neural interfaces.

The establishment of this new facility will benefit and boost a variety of research lines, including research in human-robot interaction, neuro-engineering, soft robotics, assistive virtual reality training, artificial intelligence, prosthetics, surgical robotics, rehabilitation after neurological or physical injuries.

This Core Facility is generously funded by a multi-million-pound award from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

This new role will support the technological development and roll-out of the MUVE facility. In particular, the post holder will be tasked with leading the technological development of a wearable backpack with four robotic arms. In coordination with the facility manager, the post holder will finalise the design of the wearable system and optimise the placement of the robotic arms, creating and testing a functioning prototype. The post holder will also be tasked with developing a set of software applications that showcase the capabilities of the wearable system, including the real-time control of the four robotic arms, and the integration with other elements of the facility. To accomplish these goals, the successful candidate will work closely with the facility manager, Dr Fabio Tatti, as well as the facility’s academic leads, Prof. Etienne Burdet and Prof. Dario Farina, and be embedded within a multiskilled, diverse and tight-knit team of technical staff in the Department of Bioengineering.

The focus of this position will be to assist the MUVE facility manager with the technological development required to fully roll out the new facility. The primary goals of the post holder will be:

· Develop and validate a functioning prototype of a wearable system for human augmentation studies with four robotic arms, including:

· Finalising the design of the wearable backpack and the housing and fixation of the four robotic arms.

· Conducting a workspace analysis to optimise the positioning of the four robotic arms, in order to maximise their usability during manipulation tasks.

· Creating and demonstrating a functioning prototype of the wearable system.

· Develop and test a set of demo applications showcasing the capabilities of the wearable system, including:

· Developing the software required to simultaneously control all four robotic arms in real-time.

· Implementing safety constraints to ensure the safe operation of the system by a human user, including (but not limited to) emergency stop button, speed

and workspace limits, collision avoidance mechanisms, and collision detection mechanisms.

· Implementing a set of demo applications allowing a human user to operate the robotic arms with input from different types of interfaces, to be determined in conjunction with the facility manager and users (for example, haptic force feedback devices, EMG, VR controllers, motion capture systems).

· Demonstrating synchronised data collection from the four robotic arms as well as other external systems and sensors.

For additional responsibilities please refer to the job description.

The candidate must be self-motivated, highly organised and work well as part of a team. The post holder will be working with a wide range of staff, students and visitors. Excellent communication and management skills are essential. Experience in human robotics, ideally robotics for medical and rehabilitation purposes, as well as hardware and software development, electronic techniques and robotics use and troubleshooting is required. The post holder will also have the opportunity to attend professional development workshops.

You should also have:

· A MSc or equivalent in an area pertinent to the subject area, such as Robotics, Virtual environments, Computer Science, Motion capture, and with relevant work experience

· A strong background in multisystem integration, medical robotics, prosthetics, including experience conducting experiments on relevant physical technology platform.

· Excellent communication skills and the ability to organise your own work and prioritise work to meet deadlines.

· Experience in managing laboratory or facilities, ideally in a Higher Education establishment.

Please see the job description for a full list of requirements.

In completing the online application, please ensure to elaborate in the supporting statement all relevant information including to indicate what you see are interesting research issues relating to the above post and why your expertise is relevant.

Informal enquiries related to the position should be directed to Dr Fabio Tatti – [email protected] .

Our preferred method of application is online via our website. Please click ‘apply’ below or go to http://www.imperial.ac.uk/jobs/ and enter the job title or vacancy reference number into search bar. Please complete and upload an application form as directed. Further information is also available on the job description.

Any queries regarding the application process should be directed to Yusra Vallimohamed, at [email protected]

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