Research Fellow in Formal Methods for Robotics and AI Safety

Background

The position is part of a European Innovation Council Pathfinder project, which investigates safe, intelligent, and autonomous robotic systems.

The successful candidate will join the research group of Sadegh Soudjani at the University of Birmingham and contribute to the development of mathematically rigorous safety and verification techniques for autonomous multi-robot systems.

The project focuses on the development of safe-by-design methods by combining formal verification, control theory, logical reasoning, and AI-enabled decision-making. Research topics include:

• safety verification using barrier certificates,
• compositional verification using assume-guarantee contracts,
• temporal logic specification and verification,
• safe autonomy for multi-agent robotic systems,
• and computational techniques for trustworthy AI-enabled cyber-physical systems.

The Research Fellow will collaborate with an interdisciplinary consortium involving robotics, AI, and control researchers across Europe. The role offers opportunities to publish in leading venues, contribute to open-source software, support supervision of PhD students, and participate in the development of future research proposals.

Role Summary

The post-holder will conduct research on formal verification, safe control, and logical reasoning techniques for autonomous robotic systems. The role will involve development of novel mathematical and computational methods for safety assurance of AI-enabled cyber-physical systems, including multi-robot systems operating in dynamic environments.

• Work within specified research grants and projects and contribute to writing bids
• Operate within area of specialism
• Analyse and interpret research findings and results
• Contribute to generating funding
• Contribute to licensing or spin out deals with demonstrated commercial success (such as revenues, asset or company sales, IP generated) and/or public understanding of the discipline or similar

Main Duties

The responsibilities may include some but not all of the responsibilities outlined below.

• Develop research objectives and proposals for own or joint research, with assistance of a mentor if required
• Contribute to writing bids for research funding
• Analyse and interpret data
• Apply knowledge in a way which develops new intellectual understanding
• Disseminate research findings for publication, research seminars etc
• Supervise students on research related work and provide guidance to PhD students where appropriate to the discipline
• Contribute to developing new models, techniques and methods

Person Specification

• First degree in area of specialism and normally, a higher degree relevant to research areas indicated below or equivalent qualifications/experience – Control Engineering, Computer Science, Robotics, Applied Mathematics, Electrical Engineering, or a closely related discipline.
• Strong background in at least one of the following: formal verification, control theory, robotics,
• Strong publication record relative to career stage.
• Experience with mathematical modelling and computational tool development.
• Programming experience in Python, MATLAB, Julia, or C++.
• Ability to work effectively within interdisciplinary and international collaborations.
• High level analytical capability