[alife] Job Advert: Research Assistant in Human-Robot Interaction

Chrystopher Nehaniv C.L.Nehaniv at herts.ac.uk
Wed Jan 26 04:44:54 PST 2005



RESEARCH ASSISTANT IN HUMAN-ROBOT INTERACTION

University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, United Kingdom
http://perseus.herts.ac.uk/

School of Computer Science
Adaptive Systems Research Group
http://adapsys.feis.herts.ac.uk/

Salary   £15,699 per
annum                                          (Ref:  L6153)

Applications from postgraduate candidates are invited for a full-time
research assistantship human-robot interaction. The work to be carried out
as part of this position is expected to form the basis of the candidate’s
PhD research.

The post offers the opportunity to work within the Adaptive Systems
Research Group, a proactive and dynamic research team with an excellent
international research profile. The successful candidate will work as part
of the European project Cogniron (Cognitive Robot Companion,
www.cogniron.org), aiming at developing and evaluating social and cognitive
mechanisms, models and functions for a  new generation of personal robots
that can assist people ‘in the home’, i.e. are able to carry out useful
tasks. The work will also be associated to another European robotics
project:  Robot-Cub (ROBotic Open-architecture Technology for Cognition,
Understanding and Behaviour, www.robotcub.org). Robot-Cub aims at creating
an open physical platform for embodied cognitive systems research.

This particular post will involve studies into social learning, and
emergent development of (non-verbal) communication via interaction games in
human-robot interaction. Of particular interest are grounding of
communication in imitative interaction games, exploiting effects of
contingency and synchronization. Relevant scenarios involve an autonomous
robot that can manipulate simple objects.  The successful candidate will be
part of an existing team of researchers working in the projects Cogniron
and Robot-Cub. The work involves the development of appropriate
(biologically-inspired) robot control architectures, and their thorough
analysis and evaluation in robotics experiments. The work involves
programming a suitable mobile robot as part of a team, as well as the
design and evaluation of studies with human subjects.

Applicants are expected to have excellent qualifications and experience in
biologically-inspired robotics research, Artificial Life or related
disciplines. A specialist postgraduate degree (or other strong evidence of
research potential), and excellent programming skills are required, as well
as very good skills in presenting research and writing scientific
documents. The successful candidate should also be interested in working in
an interdisciplinary and European research team.

The full-time post is based on a fixed-term contract of up to three years.
Start date: 1 April 2005.

More information on the post, including job and person specifications are
available: http://recruitment.herts.ac.uk/recruit/

Closing Date              3 February 2005

Applications must be made formally via the University of Hertfordshire
Personnel Department. For online applications see:
http://recruitment.herts.ac.uk/recruit/

Informal enquiries can be made to the research coordinator Prof. K.
Dautenhahn (K.Dautenhahn AT herts.ac.uk).

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