PhD Robotics and Systems Engineering

The food industry is very labour intensive and as a result is under threat from low wage economies. To allow companies to remain competitive they need to embrace automation. Led by Dr Steve Davis you will learn how many of the challenges found in the food industry cannot be addressed by conventional automation and how advanced systems and grippers are required. Cognition Robotics and Autonomous Systems We use the term "cognitive robotics" to refer to robots with higher level cognitive functions that involve knowledge representation and reasoning. You will work on robots with cognitive capabilities, which are key elements to autonomous systems, such as perception processing, attention allocation, anticipation, planning, reasoning about other agents, and perhaps reasoning about their own mental states. Several projects are currently undertaken in this area in collaboration with psychologists and neuroscientist from European institutions. This course is led by Prof. S. Nefti-Meziani and Dr T. Theodoridis. Biologically Inspired Robotics Research Dr Steve Davis leads this research which covers all areas of biologically inspired robotics. Future robots will move away from operating solely in factories and will interact more closely with humans. This will require a more naturalbiological-like human-machine interaction. You will work with new design approaches and learn how they will shape future robotic systems. You will learn how traditional actuators have many shortcomings and how compliance can greatly improve the safety of human robot interaction, and also how these technologies have application in healthcare and rehabilitation applications.

A minimum of a 2:1 Honours degree or equivalent in a numerate subject such as Engineering, Science, Mathematics or Computer Science. You should be able to demonstrate the use of structured programming language such as C.