[robocup-worldwide] PhD Scholarship in Lifelong Learning for Service Robots at the University of Leeds

[Matteo Leonetti]

[apologies for multiple postings]

The School of Computing, at the University of Leeds, has funding for a 
scholarship on Lifelong Reinforcement Learning for Autonomous Service 
Robots.

Background:
Robots are traditionally designed for specific environments and single 
tasks. However, we would like them to be versatile, ubiquitous, and 
reliable.  In this project, we will study long-term autonomy and 
adaptation on a mobile service robot, aiming at achieving lifelong 
learning. The robot will constantly monitor the environment and adapt to 
it as it changes. Furthermore, it will reason on its goals and 
abilities, and autonomously decide what to practice on, assigning tasks 
to itself for the purpose of training.

We will start off from the recent work I initiated on Curriculum 
Learning (see 
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~pstone/Papers/bib2html/b2hd-AAMAS16-Narvekar.html) 
and further it into the realm of autonomous service robots.

There will be opportunities for external collaboration, particularly 
with Prof. Peter Stone's group at the University of Texas at Austin, 
with which my lab has strong ties.

Related topics:
- reinforcement learning
- automated reasoning
- knowledge representation
- robot control

Experience with ROS and a good grasp of C++ is a plus.

Our lab is equipped with a number of robots, including a Baxter robot, a 
Metralab Scito A5, UR5 arm, and more to come. The University of Leeds 
recently made a $6.5M investment in robotics research and in a Robotics 
Center (http://robotics.leeds.ac.uk/) with which our lab is affiliated. 
The equipment in the Robotics Center will also be available for our use 
during the PhD.

More on the project and information on how to apply at:

https://engineering.leeds.ac.uk/research-opportunity/201323/research-degrees/615/life-long-reinforcement-learning-for-autonomous-service-robots-

Please follow the directions on the project's page (above) on how to apply.

Deadline: 17 June 2016

Please also get in contact with me at m.leonetti at leeds.ac.uk, attaching 
your CV.

Best wishes,
Matteo Leonetti