PhD Mechanical Contact Information Processing of Soft and Large-area Robot Skin

Do you want to work on the next generation robot skin to give machines a sense of touch so that they can grab and swiftly manipulate large and heavy objects? Are you passionate about contact and solid mechanics, sensing and signal processing, and robotics? If so, you might be an excellent candidate for this PhD position.

The demand for autonomous robots capable of physically interacting with the world in flexible and adaptable ways is rapidly increasing across industries and society. These robots are needed to perform heavy, non-ergonomic tasks in unstructured environments or to assist humans in physically demanding jobs. Tactile robotics, an emerging and challenging field, focuses on developing tactile sensing and perception technologies that enable robots to intelligently respond to contact.

While significant progress has been made in finger-scale tactile sensing, challenges persist in developing soft, large-area robotic skin. A major hurdle is gathering sufficient contact information on the robot's surface when the skin covers large, curved body areas with only a limited number of embedded sensors.

The important contact information, such as contact area, direction, pressure distribution, even slip incipient, is often not directly measurable. Instead, this information must be estimated from sensor signals produced by the mechanical model of the skin during contact. Advancing our understanding of this mechanical contact information processing is crucial for enhancing the feasibility and value of robotic skin technologies.

In this position, you will investigate mechanics of soft robot skin, conducting experiments to develop a mechanical contact processing model that can estimate contact information from sensors embedded in soft elastomer.

Key Objectives and Challenges of this PhD Position Include:

• Design contact experimental setups for contact analysis, utilizing the existing robot skin, with support from the Mechanical Engineering department at TU/e for mechanical design and the Electrical Engineering department at TU/e for tactile sensor electronics.
• Contribute to the development of numerical models to simulate soft, large-area robotic skin with embedded tactile sensors, with assistance from the Computer Science department at TU/e for finite element-based deformable body simulations.
• Conduct research on mechanical contact processing models, integrating both physics-based numerical models and data-driven approaches (e.g. physics-informed ML) to estimate contact information.
• Evaluate and validate the accuracy of contact information estimation.

This project builds on previous work by Dr. Hyosang Lee (link). The position is embedded in the Robotics section (RBT) within the Department of the Mechanical Engineering, and is closely connected with the Dynamics and Control (D&C) and Control Systems Technology (CST) sections.

Requirements:

• A master's degree (or equivalent) in a field relevant to signal processing, such as mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, control engineering, or related disciplines.
• Background knowledge in numerical methods, with a preference for experience in contact and solid mechanics.
• Demonstrated high and low-level programming experience (C/C++ and MATLAB/Python) and machine learning.
• Interest in mechatronics and robotics is desirable but not mandatory.
• A research-oriented mindset, eager to take on exciting challenges.
• Willingness or demonstrated ability to work on multidisciplinary and collaborative projects.
• Motivation to develop teaching skills and mentor junior students (Bachelor's and Master's levels).
• Proficiency in spoken and written English (C1 level or higher).

Salary Benefits:

A meaningful job in a dynamic and ambitious university, in an interdisciplinary setting and within an international network. You will work on a beautiful, green campus within walking distance of the central train station. In addition, we offer you:

• Full-time employment for four years, with an intermediate evaluation (go/no-go) after nine months. You will spend 10% of your employment on teaching tasks.
• Salary and benefits (such as a pension scheme, paid pregnancy and maternity leave, partially paid parental leave) in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities, scale P (min. €2,872 max. €3,670).
• A year-end bonus of 8.3% and annual vacation pay of 8%.
• High-quality training programs and other support to grow into a self-aware, autonomous scientific researcher. At TU/e we challenge you to take charge of your own learning process.
• An excellent technical infrastructure, on-campus children's day care and sports facilities.
• An allowance for commuting, working from home and internet costs.
• A Staff Immigration Team and a tax compensation scheme (the 30% facility) for international candidates.

38 hours per week

De Rondom 70