Postdoctoral Research Associate in Robotics

The Role

The BioDiMoBot project will deliver a system for autonomous, long-term robotic assessments of aquatic biodiversity and ecology. This project will develop an innovative measurement system to monitor biodiversity and provide insight into the drivers of ecosystem degradation. Additionally, it will assess organismic and environmental stress levels by using novel biohybrid sensors. With the BioDiMoBots' ability to perform autonomous and automated multimodal long-term data collection, the project will create a user-friendly robotic tool that provides detailed insights into the ecological health of aquatic environments. The project will be driven by the needs of potential stakeholders such as researchers, small and medium-sized enterprises in water-related industries and policy-makers. Fi eld operations will demonstrate the transformative power of the BioDiMoBot systems by monitoring aquatic ecosystems over a long period of time.

This position will ideally suit applicants with an interest in developing robotic systems. The successful applicant will be responsible for hardware (electronics) design, low-level programming and developing controllers, as well as implementation and testing the robotic system and its appropriate frameworks. In addition, some hands on data collection in the bio-hybrid ecosystem must be performed and so applicants must be willing to get involved in experimental work in the field.

Collaboration with our European partners is anticipated, and the successful candidate will be encouraged to adopt a creative approach to problem-solving, exploring various deep learning techniques. Verification of these models and algorithms will be conducted using benchmark datasets and real-world tests in diverse aquatic environments, necessitating a willingness to engage in experimental work for real-world verification with biologists and other stakeholders.

The project is a HORIZON funded collaboration between the University of Durham in the UK, the University of Graz in Austria, Universite Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Italy, SYRION in Austria, Oesterreichische Bundesforste in Austria and Carbon Kapture (Mulroy Bay) Ltd in the UK. This role will involve close collaboration with these external partners. You will be expected to visit several of these institutions in the course of your work and will be based in the Department of Computer Science at Durham University.

This post is fixed term for 24 months due to the project's available funding.

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