This position will be undertaken within the DEFROST and the NON-A research groups.
About Inria and the job
Inria is a research institute dedicated to promoting ‘scientific excellence in the service of technology transfer and society as a whole’. Inria employs a staff of 2700, drawn from the world’s most prestigious universities, to address the latest challenges in computer science and mathematics. The Institute operates eight Research Centres throughout France.
The Inria Lille – Nord Europe Research Centre was founded in 2008 and employs a staff of 360, including 300 scientists working in sixteen research teams. Recognised for its outstanding contribution the socio-economic development of the Nord – Pas-de-Calais Region, the Inria Lille – Nord Europe Research Centre undertakes research in the field of computer science in collaboration with a range of academic, institutional and industrial partners.
The strategy of the Centre is to develop an internationally renowned centre of excellence with a significant impact on the City of Lille and its surrounding area. It works to achieve this by pursuing a range of ambitious research projects in such fields of computer science as the intelligence of data and adaptive software systems. Building on the synergies between research and industry, Inria is a major contributor to skills and technology transfer in the field of computer science.
Context
Soft robots are rightly able to adjust their shape and flexibility to suit the task in hand and their immediate environment. Using soft robots would allow to access fragile parts of the anatomy in complete safety. Due to the infinite number of DoF, the modeling and control of soft robot with precision are still an open problem in scientific research. By using Finite-Element Method to approximate the soft robot model, it is possible to numerically verified the design of soft robots.
Job offer description
Due to special requirements in the different scenarios, different types of actuators and sensors measuring the robot position and parameters (such as applied force, shape and so on) should be integrated in the soft robot. The type of actuators and sensors and where they are mounted will determine the controllability (possibility of regulation) and observability (possibility of state and posture reconstruction) of the designed soft robot. In this sense, it is necessary to simulate numerically the soft robot, for which a pre-analysis is crucial to determine the type and the place of the integrated actuators and sensors by checking the controllability and observability. Therefore, the candidate will design and develop algorithm for efficiently charactering controllability and observability of soft robots by obtaining FEM model.
Skills and Profile
The Post-doc candidate must have a PhD. (or equivalent) in Automatic Control and/or Computer Science or a related field and a solid background in control of systems. Fluency in English (writing / speaking) is mandatory. Strong publication record is a plus.
Benefits
- Possibility of French courses
- Help for housing
- Participation in transports costs
- Scientific Resident card and help for visa
Additional Information
- Duration : 16 months
- Starting date of the contract : 01/11/2017
- Salary : 2 621 gross/month (Monthly salary after taxes : around 2 138 € (medical insurance included).
- Scientific contact : olivier.goury@inria.fr, christian.duriez@inria.fr and gang.zheng@inria.fr
