DESCRIPTION

 Job Purpose

• To conduct high quality, internationally competitive research as evidenced by top quality journal publications and other research outputs, thereby contributing to the academic and research mission of the University.
• The Postdoctoral Fellow will acquire the varied skills necessary to advance their career with guidance from the faculty supervisors. These skills include, but are not limited to, conducting top quality research, presenting research plans and findings in a convincing style both in oral and written modes of communication, contributing to research group management and supervision of others, establishing collaborations with industry and colleagues pursuing similar research agendas, and teaching.  

Key Roles & Responsibilities

Strategic Responsibilities

The candidate will be working on specific tasks related to Green House and Indoor Farm Robotics.

The core responsibilities of the candidate will include:

1. Demos of Robotic harvesting of Crops and Fruits.
2. Harvesting of Soft Fruits and Vegetables using Soft Robotic Grippers.
3. Advanced Localization and Navigation Algorithms for monitoring and intervention systems in agriculture robotics
4. Development of Autonomous inspection and harvesting robots for indoor frams.
5. Development of manipulation system for performing intervention operations (e.g. harvesting) in agriculture robotics
6. Collaboration and coordination of heterogeneous multi-robot systems in the Indoor and green house farming.
7. Human-Robot Interactions in Indoor Farms.
8. Simulations of robot inspection and manipulations for greenhouse and indoor farms.
9. Effectively collaborate with the KU, VRI, Industry and international collaborators to achieve project deliverables within prescribed timelines.
10. Publish high-quality Q1 journal and international conference papers based on the obtained research results.

The general responsibilities include:

• Participate in scientific research as a professionally responsible member of the research team. Participates in problem definition, planning and execution of the research approach, execution of experiments, interpretation of findings, documentation and reporting of results and progress, maintenance of research records and compliance with KU policies and procedures.
• Regular meetings with the Supervisor(s) to communicate research results, to review focus, discuss concerns, troubleshoot and manage expectations. 
• Publish research results in top journals in the field in a timely manner. Present research findings at meetings.
• Participate in writing grant applications.
• Contributes to the overall activities of the research team and the Center.
• Undertake a limited amount of teaching in related subjects and mentors graduate students and/or undergraduate students.
• Support in VRI Project Management and Administration duties
• Performs other duties as and when assigned by the Advisor.
• Performs other duties as and when assigned by the Advisor.

Supervisory Responsibilities

None

QUALIFICATIONS

Qualifications & Experience

Required Qualifications

PhD Degree related to Robotics (Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science. Mechatronics)  

Required Experience

To include one or more of the following areas:

• Research excellence in robotics as evidenced by peer reviewed publications in top relevant journals, appropriate for career stage.
• Hands-on experience in algorithm development and implementation in one or more of the following areas: robot perception, navigation, manipulation, grasping and heterogenous multi-robot collaborations.
• Experimental robotics
• Skills in ROS, ROS-based simulation systems, Gazebo and/or other robot simulation software
• Excellent writing and communication skills

Should you require further assistance or if you face any issue with the online application, please feel to contact the Recruitment Team (recruitmentteam@ku.ac.ae).