Research Associate in Human-Robot Interaction

The Lab of Prof Aldo Faisal at Imperial College London (www.FaisalLab.org) is seeking to hire a Post-Doctoral Research Associate to work on and lead projects in human-in-the-loop robotics and human-robot interaction with application in human augmentation and human movement restoration. The work will involve research and development into human in-the-loop methods for new, safe and trustworthy AI used primarily in robot control, covering human interfacing and physical human-robot interaction and collaboration.

These projects are led by Professor A. Aldo Faisal at the Brain and Behaviour Lab (https://faisallab.org/), Imperial College London. Aldo holds a 5 year UKRI TUring AI Fellowship which this prestigious post and additional posts are funded by. You will be joining an amibitious world-leading team that embraces both fundamental research and healthcare applications including working with patient data from day-one (successes beyond just academia include the Toyota Foundation Research Discovery Prize, Blackwood Design Award, and named as pioneering one of 10 world changing ideas by Scientific American) and corresponding publication successes (Komorowski et al, 2018, Nature Med; Gottesman et al, 2019 Nature Med, Riccotti et al, Nature Med 2023, Kadirvelu et al, Nature Med 2023). Beyond this research environment at Imperial is infused with a large friendly community in robotics (www.imperial.ac.uk/robotics) and AI (www.imperial.ac.uk/AI) research. Imperial College is consistently in the top 10 world university rankings with the Department of Computing ranked top of the Research Intensity table in the last UK REF assessment.

The Brain & Behaviour Lab has pioneered novel technologies of human interfacing for intuitive and interpretable Human-Robot Interaction. We apply this research particularly to the area of human augmentation - how can we enhance the human body physically, to be capable of motor behaviour beyond what is normally possible (3rd Thumb Project: https://youtu.be/ZXP7-HGih6E), restoration of movement for the paralysed (eNHANCE: https://youtu.be/rnNBZW8yRRM) and human-robot co-learning (https://youtu.be/1cmAE9MLEoU). Our approach can then be used to augment users with disabilities, to regain their lost capabilities (Shafti et Faisal, ICRA 2019), as well as for able-bodies users, to gain additional physical capabilities, e.g. through supernumerary robotic limbs (Shafti et al, Scientific Reports, 2021) or intelligent co-learning and collaborative agents (Shafti et al, IROS 2020).

The human-robot interaction work in our lab is embedded in an ecosystem of lab activities: a. Human interfacing, where we spearhead work on eye-tracking and gaze-based intention decoding (Shafti et Faisal, ICRA 2019, NER 2021, VSS 2021), b. non-invasive multi-model neural interfaces such as EMG/MMG/EEG/fNIRS (Wannawas et al, NER 2021, Ortega et al, JNER 2021, Wei et al NER 2021) and c. Machine learning for human-in-the-loop robotic control (Shafti et al, ICRA 2019, IROS 2020, Beyret et al, IROS 2019) and implications of such approaches to human-robot interaction (Shafti et al, Sci Reports 2021). The position will offer considerable flexibility in learning and personal development, combining and developing these research themes into human-robot-interaction research.

Duties and responsibilities

We are seeking a research associate in human-robot interaction who is interested in building their research portfolio towards an independent position and in working across the above research threads, with hands-on research as well as through work with our students active in these areas. All the above research involves human experiments, including experiments with disabled end-users such as those with paralysis, or other movement impairments. The RA would lead research projects, their validation with end-users (including obtaining ethical approvals), and report on the findings in top scientific and engineering journals and conferences.

The successful candidate will have access to the above facilities, as well as highly talented PostDocs, PhDs and MSc students from the Departments of Computing and Bioengineering at Imperial College London, to develop your programme of research within HRI and move it forward.

Essential requirements

• A PhD (or equivalent) in an area pertinent to the subject area*


• Experience in robotics, both in simulation and real-world hardware (including CAD and 3D printing as needed for hardware extensions). Experience with robot motion and path planning and the Robot Operating System (ROS).


• Advanced experience with coding, including open source tools.

Please see job description for full list of requirements.

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  Candidates close to completion of their PhD will also be considered but will be initially appointed as a Research Assistant within the salary range range £38,194 - £41,388 per annum.

Further information

In addition to completing the online application candidate should attach.

• A full CV
• A short statement indicating what you see are interesting issues relating to the above post and why your expertise is relevant

Informal inquiries are encouraged and can be addressed to Prof. Aldo Faisal: a.faisal@imperial.ac.uk

For queries regarding the application process contact Jamie Perrins: j.perrins@imperial.ac.uk

Documents

• Research Associate JD.pdf