Offer Description
Do you want to develop your research and teaching in an environment where collaboration with industry and society is a natural part of the work? With us, you will collaborate with dedicated colleagues, have access to modern research infrastructure, and enjoy strong opportunities to attract external funding. You will have the space to make a real difference for your students, your research, and society at large.
The Robotics and Artificial Intelligence group at Luleå University of Technology develops autonomous robots for field use and has tested them in mines and other underground environments. We are now looking for a postdoctoral researcher to develop autonomy for teams of legged, wheeled and aerial robots in places with extended risk, such as underground mines and areas prone to rockfall. The work covers scene understanding with foundation models, navigation, and coordinated decisions within the robot team when communication is limited.
Subject description
Robotics and artificial intelligence aim to develop novel robotic systems that are characterized by advanced autonomy for improving the ability of robots to interact with the surrounding environment and humans during the execution of specific tasks.
Project description
The Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (RAI) group belongs to the Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering. The group took part in the DARPA Subterranean Challenge with the CoSTAR team led by NASA/JPL. Its applications include robotics for mining, aerial inspection of ageing infrastructure, autonomy for space robotics and multi-robot search and rescue. More information is available at www.ltu.se/robotics.
Autonomous robots deployment in underground mines, areas prone to rockfall and other environments that are dangerous for people often need several robots working together. Communication between the robots is often intermittent, and each robot must interpret its surroundings well enough to judge risk on its own. Vision and language foundation models can support this kind of interpretation, but they rarely model the physics of the terrain or the dynamics of the robot. This position will develop methods that connect scene understanding, physics-informed navigation and coordination within the robot team, and validate them in real environments.
The research will focus on one or more of the following areas.
- Scene and context understanding with foundation models, for example vision-language models, in underground mines and areas prone to rockfall, including hazard identification and risk-aware traversability assessment
- Physics-informed foundation models for autonomous navigation, where learned models account for the robot's dynamics and the physical properties of the terrain
- Multi-robot collaboration over mesh networks, with shared mapping and coordinated decision making under intermittent communication
- Communication-aware planning of multi-robot missions that use 5G/6G infrastructure, where the robots plan their motion and tasks based on network coverage and capacity
- Experimental validation on legged, wheeled and aerial robots in underground and mining environments
Duties
The duties of a postdoctoral researcher are primarily research. The research has a substantial experimental part, with work on real robots and field experiments in mines and other underground environments. You will publish the results in international peer-reviewed journals and at major conferences. The position also includes co-supervision of PhD and master's students and taking part in applications for research funding from funding agencies, the EU framework programme and industry. Teaching may be included for at most one fifth of working time.
Qualifications
To be eligible for employment as a postdoctoral researcher, you must hold a PhD or a foreign degree equivalent to a PhD in robotics, automatic control, computer science, electrical engineering or a related subject. It is a merit if the doctoral degree was awarded no more than three years before the application deadline. Candidates who were awarded their doctoral degree earlier may also be considered if there are special grounds, for example different types of statutory leave.
You need a good knowledge of at least one of the following: robot perception, learning-based methods for robotics, multi-robot systems, or motion and mission planning. Previous work with experimentally verified results on real robots, in at least one of the research areas above, is required. You also need good programming skills in C++ and Python, and experience of ROS or ROS 2. Good oral and written English is required, since you will present the group's work in Sweden and abroad.
Experience of foundation models or vision-language models in robotics, of legged robots, of communication and mesh networking for robots, of wireless communication systems such as 5G or 6G, or of field experiments in underground environments is a merit.
Further information
This is a full-time, fixed-term position as a postdoctoral researcher for two years, with the possibility of extension to a maximum of three years in total. The position is based in Luleå. The starting date is by agreement.
For further information about the position, please contact
Chaired Professor George Nikolakopoulos, [contact details available in the full listing], [contact details available in the full listing]
Postdoctoral Researcher, Akash Patel, [contact details available in the full listing]
For each position, a preliminary salary range is provided based on the requirements, responsibilities and market conditions of the role.
In case of different interpretations of the English and Swedish versions of this announcement, the Swedish version takes precedence.
Application
We prefer that you apply via the application button below. Attach a cover letter, a CV with a list of publications and copies of verified degree certificates. Also include a research plan of at most two pages that describes how you would approach one or more of the research areas above, and the names and contact details of two references. Please mark your application with the reference number below. The application and degree certificates must be written in Swedish or English.
Closing date for applications: 15 November, 2026
Reference number: [contact details available in the full listing]
