Connectionists: Professor in Embedded Cognitive AI for Robotics at Bristol Robotics Laboratory

[Tony Pipe]

The Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) research-and-innovation 
pipeline is now experiencing unprecedented growth, evidenced by 
substantial new research opportunities appearing across the UK and EU 
funding landscape. You will champion an exciting new research theme in 
BRL; embedded cognitive AI for robots engaged in close-proximity 
Human-Robot Interaction. You will build up an expert team by utilising 
the existing world-renowned resources at BRL, and by creating new ones.

We have identified two critical application domains in which to pursue 
this work: i) Health-Care Technologies (HCT) focused on robotics for 
Ambient Assisted Living (AAL), including elderly/infirm care, 
rehabilitation, pre and post cancer surgery support; ii) Advanced 
Flexible Manufacturing (AFM) including Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) and 
elements of ‘Industrie 4.0’.

BRL already has an excellent internationally recognised track record in 
these areas, including strong connection into the related UK, EU and 
international research and advanced industrial communities, but critical 
work remains to be done. You will bring your expert knowledge to bear on 
our existing work in bi-directional multi-modal interactions between a 
human and a robot to develop a robot ‘theory of mind’ in order for the 
machine to build notions of human wants and expectations, as well as 
modelling its own Beliefs, Desires and Intentions. Along with the 
ability to vary levels of autonomy to suit a given interaction context, 
these are vital issues in making robots genuinely helpful, supportive 
and natural to interact with and, ultimately, acceptable to users. To 
achieve the urgently required advances in these areas, you will ideally 
have an established track record in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for 
complex on-line cognition, requiring sophisticated interaction with 
humans during task execution. However, we welcome applications from 
gifted researchers from strongly linked disciplines who are fully 
committed to developing the area of research outlined above.

Please note, this role is equivalent to a Full Professor role at a US 
University.

Closing date: 31 May 2016
Salary: negotiable

For more information, visit: http://www.brl.ac.uk/jobsatbrl.aspx 
(towards the bottom of that address there is a "How to apply" link).

Tony Pipe
Professor of Robotics and Autonomous Systems
Deputy Director: Bristol Robotics Laboratory

Anthony.Pipe at uwe.ac.uk
www.brl.ac.uk