PhD Studentship: Robotic Manipulation

Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences EPSRC Project Proposals 2025/26

Eligibility: UK Only 

Funding: School of Computer Science Scholarship consisting of the award of fees, together with a tax-free maintenance grant of £19,237 per year for 3.5 years.  

Lead Supervisor’s full name & email address 

Professor David Hogg: d.c.hogg@leeds.ac.uk 

Co-supervisor(s) full name & email address 

Dr Kunpeng Yao: kunpeng@mit.edu   

Project summary 

As robots integrate into daily life, achieving human-level dexterity is crucial for tasks like precision assembly, household assistance, and healthcare. This PhD project focuses on developing methods related to the following research topics:

• Robotic fine manipulation
• In-hand dexterous manipulation
• Skill acquisition and transfer
• Bimanual manipulation

You will contribute to cutting-edge research combining robotics, AI, and control systems, working both in simulators (e.g., MuJoCo, PyBullet, etc.) and with real robotic systems.

The PhD will be supervised by Dr Kunpeng Yao who joins the University of Leeds in March 2025 from MIT.

Please state your entry requirements plus any necessary or desired background

We seek a highly motivated candidate with:

Essential

• A master’s degree in Robotics, Computer Science, Mechatronics, or related fields.
• Strong programming skills (e.g., Python, or MATLAB, or C++; knowledge in ROS).
• Interest in robot control, learning, manipulation, and task planning.

Preferred

• Experience with robotic hardware or simulation tools.
• Publications in robotics conferences/journals.

Subject Area

AI & machine learning, robotics

Keywords

Artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotic manipulation, robotics

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