PhD Candidate in Tactile Robotics and AI
We are offering a fully funded PhD studentship in Robotics and AI at the Robot Perception Lab led by Dr Shan Luo within the Centre for Robotics Research at the Department of Engineering, King’s College London, starting from October 2025.
King’s is a leading university providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. We are ranked sixth in the UK for the quality and quantity of research activity (Research Excellence Framework, 2021). The Department of Engineering at King’s is located on the Strand Campus of King’s College London where the studentship will be based.
The successful candidate will investigate the following challenges:
1. Tactile sensing hardware and data acquisition: Developing robotic fingertips capable of capturing fine-grained tactile information and building a database to record tactile data.
2. AI-driven perception models: Applying machine learning and probabilistic inference to interpret tactile signals.
3. Robotic control and interaction strategies: Designing behaviour policies that enable the robot to explore materials automatically.
4. Simulations and real-world experiments: Conducting tests in controlled environments and evaluating performance on practical tasks.
We offer:
1. You will work at one of the world leading research groups in Robotics and AI, and have the opportunity to work towards your PhD with a group of excellent scientists.
2. You will receive funding for a generous stipend and cover for the fees.
3. Access to robot facilities in the lab, e.g., UR5 robot arms, ABB YuMi dual-arm robot, multiple robotic grippers and many other robot platforms.
4. Collaboration opportunities in both academia and industry including funded placements at the project partner Unilever R&D.
Award value:
Stipend: Tax-free stipend of an estimate of £24,780.00 for Year 1 (an enhanced stipend above the UKRI base rate), with inflationary increases after the first year.
Tuition fees: UK tuition fees will be covered by the studentship. There are a limited number of international fee waivers for international students available across the faculty.
The deadline for applications is 15th April 2025.
Please contact Dr Shan Luo (shan.luo@kcl.ac.uk) with a copy of your CV for queries about the project.
For further details and application instructions, please visit the following link.
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