PhD Scholarship Programme: Affective Human - Robot Interaction (Vicente López)

Our Robotics and Automation Unit has been involved in several of the most successful European Robotics Projects for over 15 years. The Robotics and Automation Unit is specialized in research and development on ground, aerial, and industrial robotics . With a strong focus on our customers and partner’s needs, our mission is to enhance the capabilities and reliability of autonomous systems operating in realistic scenarios, improving the existing technology, and enabling new applications.

The Eurecat Robotics and Automation Unit is currently looking for a highly motivated researcher to develop a PhD on affective human-robot interaction. This thesis will focus on the scientific challenges related to the natural and efficient human-robot interaction (HRI). To achieve natural interaction the challenges are, on one hand, the mutual understanding of robots and human intentions and decisions. And, on the other hand, the emotional insights generated by this experience, such as for instance, the level of affection and engagement. Affective robotics aims at exploiting multimodal channels to communicate with the user or patient, combining the voice, screen, body, and other means to express themselves. Likewise, humans naturally transmit relevant information in very subtle details such as grins and noises. This thesis will study and propose an efficient approach to develop a social interaction that improves the level of engaging and efficiency of the communication between a human and a robot that could be deployed and evaluated both in several human-robot interaction applications.

 Functions and Responsibilities:

• Working with Artificial Intelligence using deep learning, reinforcement learning, Learning from Demonstration, adaptive learning.
• Working with Robotics: manipulation and grasping, SLAM and localization methods, path planning and navigation, vision, 3D perception, behavior modelling.
• Develop, validate, and maintain code.
• Lead, plan and execute demonstrations.
• Provide R&D support to the other colleagues
• Conducting the research, write drafts of scientific papers, and deliver a PhD thesis

Besides, it is a great opportunity to apply robotics research to real applications working in National or Horizon Europe research projects or hand by hand with our customers in several of our private contracts with industry.