We are hiring a PhD student.

In the current manufacturing industry, many tasks are still handled by human operators due to the craftsmanship skill required for the job. Skilled operators execute tasks fast, efficiently, safely, ergonomically, and with high quality. With growing flexibility demands for production environments, operators need to switch more often between different tasks, resulting in a lower experience and skill in the task and thus limited output quality and speed. Training new skills are mainly based on training documents and the experience of expert operators. However, there is still unknown knowledge that is not yet quantified or discovered.

In the project AUTOCRAFT, we aim at enhancing craftsmanship knowledge capturing the task execution of skilled operators through multi-modal sensing including motion trajectories, contact forces, body postures, properties of materials and workpieces, process parameter settings, etc. If available, this knowledge will be obtained from different skilled workers to measure their variability while executing tasks. The project relates to the industry and project results will be validated in real-world industrial applications.

Work description:

• You will investigate the current way of transferring skills from expert operators to novices and how multi-modal sensing can enhance craftsmanship knowledge.

• You are responsible for developing a skill capturing system using motion capture (e.g. Vicon, Xsens) and other sensors to measure contact forces, temperature, etc.

• You will be responsible for the processing of captured data from task execution (or demonstration) from expert operators, aligning it with CAD models, using different algorithms to quantify or model different aspects of skills.

• You will develop a common craftsmanship language that is able to describe various skills in a quantified, unambiguous, and scientific manner.

• You will validate your work in several validation cases contributed by the user group.

• You will collaborate and interact with project partners from academia as well as from industry.

• Besides the project work, you will be given the opportunity to supervise master students.

Skills/Qualifications:

• You hold a Master’s degree in a relevant field (computer engineering, artificial intelligence, robotics, or similar).

• You are proficient in C# and/or C++ and willing to learn other programming languages to support the project.

• You have experience with or a profound understanding of multi-sensory technology and virtual reality/augmented reality/extended reality.

• You have experience with 3D CAD or are willing to learn.

• You have experience with or interest in real-time graphic rendering and interactive simulation engines.

• Experience in machine learning is a plus.

• Experience with Unity is a plus.

• Published peer-reviewed papers in international journals (preferably relevant to the topic) is a plus.

To apply:

Send an e-mail to Hoang-Long Cao (Hoang.Long.Cao@vub.be) and Tom Verstraten (Tom.Verstraten@vub.be) including your resumé (in pdf format), a transcript of grades and a digital copy of your Master’s thesis. Provide a motivation letter clearly indicating which position you are applying for and explaining why you would be interested in working on this project.