Cape Town, South Africa
Position Type: Full Time

The African Robotics Unit (ARU) is a collection of robotics researchers in South Africa focused on studying problems we are uniquely positioned to solve. We are based at the University of Cape Town, the top-ranked university in Africa, which is situated in Cape Town, ranked in the top 25 cities in the world for travel.

We are seeking a PhD student to investigate the neuromechanics of legged maneuverability in the wild, specifically focusing on the cheetah as a model animal. The goal is to understand how animals negotiate trade-offs between competing requirements during locomotion, and how this can inform the design of future mobile robotic systems. The study will utilize an inverse optimal control approach to determine the cost function from observed motion, which has not yet been applied to study a free-moving animal in the wild. The successful student will investigate the neuromechanics of cheetah head stabilization, spine, and tail during high-speed manoeuvres. This research aims to provide key insights into the dynamics and control of legged locomotion in animals, which can have implications for the development of agile and robust robotic systems. This project is fully funded by Mathworks.

Requirements:

• Master’s degree (Electrical or Mechanical Engineering or Computer Science or related field)
• Strong skills in MATLAB and Python
• Confidence with version control tools (specifically Git)
• A strong publication record would be advantageous
• Good communication skills and ability/willingness to integrate within a multidisciplinary international research group
• Applicants may not previously have held full-time permanent academic posts and be under 40 years old
• Experience with optimal control (trajectory optimisation) or legged robotics would be advantageous.