Research Fellow in Robotics

About us

UCL Mechanical Engineering has been pioneering the development of engineering education, having taught the core discipline for over 165 years. UCL was home to the UK’s first ever Professor of the Mechanical Principles of Engineering, Eaton Hodgkinson, in 1847. It was also where Sir Alexander Blackie William Kennedy introduced organized laboratory practicals in university education training; a world-leading educational innovation at the time.

At UCL Mechanical Engineering, we develop and apply core competencies to produce world-class research into a wider range of engineering challenges than most would imagine. Amongst many other avenues we are:

• Leading research into low carbon shipping
• Designing the greenest engines and novel sustainable fuels
• Biomechanical Research
• Development and testing of new and unique materials.

About the role

The Department of Mechanical Engineering is seeking to appoint a Research Fellow in Robotics. The position is available in September 2025 and funded for one year in the first instance, with the possibility to extend it for 2 additional years.

The post holder will be required to carry out research in the laboratory of Dr Sara Adela Abad at UCL in the area of bioinspired robotics.

The Research Fellow will carry out activities to design, fabricate and validate a bioinspired foot solution that can be integrated into commercially available legged robots and uses the foot’s embodiment to address soil compaction:

o Creating a compliant and robust foot for outdoor applications.

o Integrating the foot into a commercially available robotic platform.

o Performing field validations of this integration.

In this project, the candidate is also required to closely lead the UCL work on collaboration with animal biomechanics experts from the Royal Veterinary College and soil experts from the University of Lincoln; and strategic project partners, namely ANYbotics and ANTOBOT.

About you

We would be delighted to receive applications from candidates who meet the following criteria:

• Holder of a good first degree (2:1 UK equivalent or above) and a PhD in electrical/mechanical/computer science engineering or robotics.
• Demonstrable experience in development and evaluation of bioinspired mechanisms/devices, and/or technologies with applications in field robots and/or soil compaction to generate and execute independent and collaborative research at an internationally-leading level.
• Experience working with multiple programming languages (e.g. ROS, Python, Matlab, C++).
• Holder of a good track record of recently and continuously publishing their work in research journals and undertaken supervisory roles in a research laboratory.
• Ability to take initiatives and engage in challenging cross-disciplinary research. Please refer to the attached Job

Description & Person Specification for a comprehensive list of required skills and attributes. For informal enquiries about the post, please contact Dr Sara Abad (s.abad-). Please note that only-short listed candidates will be contacted.

What we offer

For information about our rewards and benefits please visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/reward-and-benefits.

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

As London’s Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world’s talent. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong.

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