Reaching into cluttered and unstructured environments for robotic manipulation is still a largely unsolved problem. Current motion planning strategies for robots optimise for reaching while avoiding collisions within their environment. This is a fundamental problem when interacting with real-world environments as contact is inevitable.
This PhD seeks to understand how we can use tactile or other sensory feedback and advanced control methods to exploit the environment for solving robotic tasks that are not achievable with current techniques.
This PhD aims to give robots the ability to safely interact with the world without damaging themselves, others or the environment.
This aims to take the robotics community one step closer to having human-like performance in cluttered and unstructured environments.
We are looking for candidates with an interest in motion planning, control and sensor design in the application areas of robotic grasping and manipulation.