=== Apply at:
pierre-yves.oudeyer@inria.fr and
matthieu.lapeyre@inria.fr=== Context
The Flowers lab is a mixed team (Inria/Ensta ParisTech) composed of about 20 researchers and engineers. Flowers is a research team internationally renowned in developmental and humanoid robotics.
It collaborates with several European, American and Asian laboratories, and coordinates several European projects. The team is also very active in the dissemination of science among the general public, and regularly participates in exhibitions and collaborations with artists as acting to make younger discover robotics.
Web:
https://flowers.inria.fr=== Mission
The research work conducted in the Flowers team led to the conception of Poppy (
http://www.poppy-project.org/), one of the first humanoid robot in the world to be both open-source and 3D printed.
It aims to become a community and multi-disciplinary platform for exploration and experimentation in robotics for Research, Art and Educational purposes.
In its current version, Poppy is about 80cm tall for 3.5 kg. It has 25 joints motorized by Robotis smart-actuators (
http://www.robotis.com/xe/dynamixel_en). These servo-motors, although effective, cost about 5.000€ on the 7.500€ of Poppy.
Poppy is a low-cost robot in the world of research, however for its educational, training and scientific mediation missions, the cost limit its diffusion. Several improvements should be made in order to take down it cost and make Poppy even more accessible.
In a team with a mechanical engineer and relying on existing work as Open Servo (
http://openservo.com/) and Supermodified (
http://letsmakerobots.com/node/18615) your role will be to work on control and automation of Poppy 2.
You will also take involved in the execution of projects related to Poppy, and in a international working environment.
=== Description
Conception of the general electronics architecture of the next versions of Poppy and working on low-cost actuator integration.
Development of the library and low level control and integration with pypot (
https://github.com/poppy-project/pypot).
Profile
• Practical experience in the design of electronics boards (electronic design automation (Eagle or KiCad), routing design rules, protection (ESD, short-cut), noise filtering)
• Theoretical and practical experience with embedded systems (programming microcontroller, low-level communication, sensors, real time)
• Control and design of medium power electronics (control loop, H bridge, design of heat sink)
• Familiarity with the Arduino environment
• Familiarity with the Python programming language
• English proficiency
• Team work
Requirements
• Minimum 2 years of experience
• Master degree
Benefits
• Partial support of transportation costs.
• Food restauration available on site.
• Dynamic and pleasant working ambiance
Additional Information
• Duration of contract: 24 months
• Estimated date of employment: 1 October 2014
• Monthly gross salary: 2600 euros to 3500 euros (depending on experience).
For more information about the position, contact
pierre-yves.oudeyer@inria.fr and
matthieu.lapeyre@inria.fr