2 PhD's in the AMBER project: AdvanceMents in Behavioral autonomy for mEdical (# of pos: 2)

Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e; website ) in collaboration with Philips Image Guided Therapy is looking for two PhD candidates to join the AMBER project: AdvanceMents in Behavioral Autonomy for mEdical Robots.

In this project we want to devise and experimentally validate novel navigation and control approaches for a system of medical robots in order to increase their level of autonomy and accuracy with respect to task execution. The type of tasks targeted by the project is in the domain of image guided therapy interventions.

The first PhD student will focus on motion control of a system of robotic manipulators with high accuracy and replicability requirements. The second PhD student will focus on the degree of autonomy of the system, in particular, on obstacle avoidance.

The research will be conducted on an experimental set-up already available at the robotics lab of the university. The PhD students will be responsible for supervising bachelor and master students who will transfer their generic results to the hardware set-up of the partner company. The candidates will contribute to the robotics scientific research at a fundamental/theoretical level as well as at the experimental level.

For this position we expect candidates with a strong background in control systems and/or robotics with excellent communication skills. We also expect candidates with prior experience with hardware/software setup for robotics. Significant prior experience with Matlab/Simulink and C++ is strongly recommended.

We will provide you with excellent infrastructure and real-life scenarios on which you can validate your research. You will also be affiliated with EAISI (Eindhoven Artificial Intelligence Systems Institute).

TU/e will offer you plenty of opportunities for development. You can join the DISC (Dutch Institute for Systems and Control) school as well as several programs offered by TU/e for personal development.

We are looking for very motivated candidates with an eagerness to learn and approach problems from a fundamental as well as a practical perspective. When selected you will join the CST group of the Mechanical Engineering Department.

The Control Systems Technology (CST; website ) group as part of the department of Mechanical Engineering (ME) has an internationally recognized reputation in mechatronics, precision motion control and robotics. CST targets areas in Precision Machines, Robotics, Biomedical and Automotive engineering by designing performance-oriented controllers, intelligent machine and algorithm designs. CST has a track record of over twenty years in bringing state-of-the-art systems and control theory into new designs and high-tech applications.

The CST group has a track record in European projects. It was the coordinator of the FP7 - ROBOEARTH project, is and has been participating in H2020 projects EUREYECASE, ROPOD, AUTOPILOT and more recently SAFE-UP and many more European and nationally funded projects (INTEREG, OPZUID, FAST).

Since 2005, CST is the main contributor to the TU/e RoboCup team, Tech United, which has been named 6 times world champion ('12, '14, '16, '18, '19, '22) in the Middle Size League and the 2019 and 2022 world champion in the @Home Domestic Platform League with the TOYOTA Human Support Robot. The model-based, multidisciplinary-oriented approach has proven to be highly valuable in the field of robotics. The CST group is led by Prof. M. Steinbuch and has produced 5 start-ups in the past 10 years (Preceyes, MicroSure, Eindhoven Medical Robotics, Smart Robotics and recently RUVU- behavior for robots).