Doctoral students in Automatic Control with focus on Robotics

Description of the workplace

Automatic Control is an exciting and broad subject, covering both advanced mathematics and hands-on engineering. Historically, it has been instrumental in many areas, from the early development of telecommunications to the space race. Today, driven by the need to engineer ever larger systems, Automatic Control is more relevant than ever.

The department of Automatic control has a stimulating and international environment with PhD students, postdocs, and teachers coming from all corners of the world. Research and teaching are conducted in an open and progressive atmosphere with collaborations both within academia and with industry, nationally as well as internationally. A PhD degree from the Department of Automatic control gives you the perfect base for an exciting career, be it in academia or industry.

Lund University and the Department of Automatic Control welcome applicants with diverse backgrounds and experiences. We regard equality and diversity as a strength and an asset. For more information on being a doctoral student at the department, please have a look at our research videos: Research | Department of Automatic Control (lth.se).

Being a doctoral student

As a doctoral student, you are both admitted as a student and employed at Lund University.

As a doctoral student, you will be trained in a scientific approach. In short, you will be trained to think critically and analytically, to solve problems independently using the right methods, and to develop an awareness of research ethics. In addition, you will have the opportunity to work on projects, to develop your leadership and pedagogical skills. Throughout your studies, you will be guided by supervisors. Doctoral studies end with a thesis and a doctoral degree.

More about being a doctoral student at LTH on lth.se. https://www.lth.se/english/study-at-lth/phd-studies/

Subject and project description

ELLIIT (https://elliit.se) is a strategic research environment funded by the Swedish government in 2010, as part of its initiative to support strong research in information technology and mobile communications. ELLIIT has four partners: Linköping University, Lund University, Halmstad University and Blekinge Institute of Technology. We are now announcing ELLIIT-funded PhD student positions for two new projects within control and robotics.

Learning-based robotic mobile manipulation:
This PhD project is devoted to developing physically grounded and safety-aware learning frameworks that combine reinforcement learning with control-theoretic structure. The goal is to enable stable, adaptive, and data-efficient mobile manipulation in redundant robotic systems operating in real-world environments. The research is carried out within the ELLIIT project “Learning Robot Control from Expert Demonstrations and Self-Experience”.

Learning-based predictive decision-making for autonomous systems under uncertainty:
This PhD project is focusing on advancing proactive decision-making in multi-agent autonomous systems by leveraging and combining deep-learning based motion predictions and optimization-based motion planning. Key research questions include multi-modal uncertainty awareness and generalization and transferability across different scenarios. The research is carried out within the ELLIIT project “Learning-Based Predictive Decision-Making for Uncertainty-Aware Autonomous Systems”.

The research will be performed in close collaboration with PhD students and senior researchers in the projects at Linköping University.

Work duties

You will primarily devote yourself to your doctoral programme, which includes participation in research projects as well as third cycle courses, seminars and conferences.

The PhD position consists of three main aspects and the work duties include:

• research project, including authoring papers and traveling to conferences, seminars etc.
• postgraduate courses, given locally, nationally and internationally (90 ECTS credits)
• teaching (no more than 20%), including lab supervision and exam responsibilities. This part may also include departmental services, such as working with equality and diversity, arranging events etc

Qualifications

To be eligible for admission and employment as a doctoral student, you must fulfil the requirements below.

Admission requirements

A person meets the general admission requirements for third-cycle courses and study programmes if the applicant:

• has been awarded a second-cycle qualification, or
• has satisfied the requirements for courses comprising at least 240 credits of which at least 60 credits were awarded in the second cycle, or
• has acquired substantial equivalent knowledge in some other way in Sweden or abroad.

A person meets the specific admission requirements for third cycle studies in Automatic Control if the applicant has:

• knowledge corresponding to course FRTF05 (previously FRT010) Automatic Control, Basic Course and a second cycle specialisation of relevance to the subject, and
• an MSc in engineering or corresponding qualification
  
  

Additional requirements

In order to complete the doctoral programme in question, the following are also required:

• Very good oral and written proficiency in English.
• Good language-analytical ability.
• Curiosity about research and teaching in general, and motivation for the particular

research project.

• Creativity with good ability for cooperation and networking.
• Good ability to work independently and to formulate and tackle research problems.
• Good written and oral communication skills

Other qualifications (advantages)

For the doctoral programme in question, the following are considered as other qualifications:

Strong foundations in

• advanced control and robotics,
• learning-based control, in particular for robots and autonomous systems,

are meriting.

Consideration will be given to good collaborative skills, drive and independence, and how the applicant,through experience and skills, is deemed to have the abilities necessary for successfully completing the third cycle programme.

We offer

Lund University is a public authority which means that employees get particular benefits, generous annual leave and an advantageous occupational pension scheme.

More about working at Lund University on lu.se. https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/about-university/work-lund-university

About the employment

The employment is a fixed-term employment at full time, starting as agreed, but no later than October 15, 2026.Third cycle studies at LTH consist of full-time studies for 4 years. In the case of teaching and other departmental duties, the employment is extended accordingly. Doctoral studentships are regulated in the Higher Education Ordinance (1993:100), chapter 5, 1-7 §§.

More about terms of employment for doctoral students on Lund University’s Staffpages. https://www.staff.lu.se/research-and-education/research-support/doctoral-education/terms-employment-doctoral-students

Other

We intend to offer employment to 2 PhD students. A doctoral student will receive a competitive monthly salary of 35 300 SEK with yearly raise.

Those applicants who will be called for interview, might be asked to perform a small test to demonstrate basic competence.

How to apply

Applications shall be written in English and include:

• CV and a cover letter stating the reasons why you are interested in the doctoral programme/employment and in what way the research project corresponds to your interests and educational background.
• Copies of issued study certificates and/or awarded degree certificates. These must confirm that you meet the general and specific admission requirements for the doctoral programme and show that you have the subject knowledge required for the doctoral programme project.
• Other documents you wish to be considered (grade transcripts, contact information for your references, letters of recommendation, etc.)

We welcome your application.