Engineer (Robotics) / School of Engineering (2-year contract)

Engineer (Robotics) / School of Engineering Responsibilities • Design robotics systems integrating robot manipulators, computer vision, and end-effectors to solve pick-and-place and object manipulation tasks. • Develop manipulation behaviours including grasping, pick-and-place, object reorientation, bimanual handling, and visual or tactile servo for heavy and irregular payloads. • Program collaborative robot arms under ROS2, and plan, optimise, and validate trajectories with respect to joint limits, collision avoidance, and cycle-time efficiency. • Perform kinematic and dynamic analysis of manipulators to ensure safe, precise, and repeatable operation. • Design and prototype custom end-effectors and grippers for high-payload manipulation, integrating actuators, force or tactile sensing, and structural components. • Build 2D and 3D vision pipelines for object detection, 6-DoF pose estimation, and grasp planning using RGB, depth, and structured-light sensors. • Perform hand-eye and multi-sensor calibration and develop sensor-fusion methods to support reliable grasp execution. • Develop simulation and digital-twin environments (e.g., Isaac Sim, Gazebo, MuJoCo) to prototype, train, and validate manipulation behaviours before hardware deployment. • Integrate mechanical, electronic, and software subsystems into a cohesive embodied AI platform, making informed trade-offs between performance, cost, and reliability. • Implement diagnostics, logging, and testing tools to monitor system performance and enable rapid debugging in lab and field conditions. • Document designs, experiments, and results, and contribute to technical reports, publications, and open-source releases. • Supervise student training in robotic projects Requirements ​ • Qualifications in Robotics, Mechatronics, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a closely related field (required). • Experience in architecting end-to-end robotic manipulation systems spanning hardware, perception, planning, and control (required). • Demonstrated mechanical design ability using CAD tools (SolidWorks, Fusion 360, or equivalent), with hands-on fabrication experience for end-effectors or robotic components (required). • Experience in at least one of the following programming languages: C/C++ and/or Python • Experience in development of robotic systems using ROS1 and ROS2 • Hands-on experience programming industrial or collaborative robot arms in real-world deployments (required). • Practical experience with motion-planning frameworks such as MoveIt, including trajectory optimisation and collision-avoidance configuration • Solid grounding in robotics fundamentals, including forward and inverse kinematics, rigid-body dynamics, manipulator control, and computer vision • Competency in electronics, including microcontrollers, sensor interfacing, actuator drivers, and circuit-level debugging • Able to learn new skills and work independently • Good written and oral communication skills.