PhD Position in SureROB: Methodology development of ML-based digital twins (DC8)

École Centrale de Lyon; France; Sur place; EUR 40 000 - 60 000; Plein temps

Résumé du poste

A prominent engineering school in France is seeking PhD candidates for the SureROB project, which aims to advance green manufacturing through collaborative robots. The successful candidates will split their research between Lyon and Warsaw over three years. Candidates should possess strong analytical skills, a passion for science, and a relevant Master’s degree. This prestigious Marie Curie programme offers a competitive salary and extensive training, providing excellent opportunities in both public and private sectors.

Prestations

Competitive salary

Intensive training

Exposure to multiple sectors

Qualifications

• Doctoral candidates must comply with the mobility rule.
• Candidates should not have resided in France for more than 12 months in the last 36 months.
• Relevant master's degree required.

Responsabilités

• Undertake international mobility for 18 months in Lyon and 18 months in Warsaw.
• Develop and benchmark industrial solutions in green manufacturing systems using robotics.
• Participate in collaborative research with renowned scientists.

Connaissances

Analytical skills

Problem-solving abilities

Background in Mechanical Engineering

Mathematics

Formation

Master's degree in a relevant field

Description du poste

Organisation/Company École Centrale de Lyon Department Département de Mécanique des Solides Génie Mécanique et Génie Civil Research Field Engineering Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Positions PhD Positions Country France Application Deadline 15 Jan 2026 - 23:59 (Europe/Berlin) Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Hours Per Week 40 Offer Starting Date 1 Jul 2026 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Horizon Europe - MSCA Reference Number DC8 Marie Curie Grant Agreement Number 101226856 Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

About the SureROB Project

Development of efficient, safe, green, and reconfigurable manufacturing systems requires seamless integration between software and hardware solutions, requiring cooperation between experts from different fields. The project aims to make advancements in green manufacturing systems through collaborative robots (CoBots), making them viable for SMEs. The field of robotics faces the challenge of a disconnect between experts from computer science that provide generic solutions and the end-users that work and interact with the hardware. By bridging this gap to enable the development of lightweight, efficient, and sustainable CoBots, SureROB will holistically train skilled researchers to contribute to European manufacturing. Through a well-balanced consortium of renowned academic bodies and industrial partners from seven countries, SureROB will develop and benchmark industrially feasible solutions. The focus would be not only to make the manufacturing process sustainable but also address the sustainability of manufacturing CoBots themselves. Green tools and techniques will be developed. An important target would be achieving up to 20% reduction in the weight of the robot's components (drives and arms), resulting in lower energy consumption without compromising on the system reliability and robustness. Structural and geometric optimisation of the drives and arms will be investigated to improve the dynamic behaviour and efficiency with software-based design solutions. These will be supported with vibration control strategies working in sync with optimised path planning and condition monitoring strategies. Numerical and experimental evaluation of the developed solutions will be conducted for benchmarking them against the reference system. SureROB will address the cost and impact of existing technologies to make them economically feasible and eco-friendly, and will actively disseminate the results, engage with the public, and promote open science.

About the DC8 Project

A promising tool that has emerged for mechanical design is the Digital Twin (DT). DTs create high-fidelity virtual replicas of products at a low computational cost, enabling a thorough design search that leads to optimal and robust designs. However, the nonlinear and non-smooth nature of some physical problems, the lack of interpretability and physics foundation of databased models, and the data scarcity at the early stages of design pose challenges for building accurate and affordable DTs. In this context, this thesis will propose a novel data-based framework for modeling DTs of robotic systems that can speed up system evaluations and improve product design. The proposed framework relies on Machine Learning (ML) techniques to infer system models based on data obtained from high-fidelity simulations. The thesis will evaluate different classes of ML methods with varying degrees of nonlinearity, non-smoothness, uncertainty, and dimensionality to identify suitable methods. Moreover, a feature engineering approach incorporates expert knowledge into the ML model by creating new inputs based on existing physical models to address ML's accuracy and consistency with the target physical system. To overcome the scarcity of data at the beginning of robotic design, a novel solution will be introduced: the use of Transfer Learning (TL) to leverage knowledge from past product generations.

The project requires the candidate to undertake international mobility. 18 months of the research work will be performed in Lyon (France) at École Centrale de Lyon and 18 months in Warsaw (Poland) at Adaptronica.

Please visit our website for more information.

Please submit your applications via this link.

Within SureROB there are 9 PhD positions on offer that tackle different challenges in robotics. Visit our PhD Positions website page to look at the other positions!

We look forward to your application! Thank you for your interest!

• Analytical skills and outstanding problems solving abilities,
• Passion for science and technology and the motivation to undertake transnational mobility, and
• Solid background in Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics.
• Prestigious PhD programme (Marie-Curie) with a competitive salary (see here ), comprising of
  • The Living allowance, amounting to € 4010 /month. This amount is adjusted according to the country in which the candidate is recruited
  • Mobility allowance, amounting to € 710 /month, and
  • Family allowance(if applicable, depending on family situation), which amounts to € 660 per month.

    Please note that the salary contributions described above are according to the budget categories for MSCA doctoral networks. Social security, mandatory deductions, and taxes have not been considered. The final salary received by the candidate will depend on the country of recruitment.

• Work with renowned research scientists and industrial experts,
• Exposure to multiple sectors (research labs, industry, start-ups/SMEs),
• Receive intensive training on a broad set of career-enabling skills,
• Benefit from a 3-years immersion in an industry-oriented research environment with excellent career opportunities in both public and private sectors.

Eligibility criteria

• Recruited researchers must be doctoral candidates, i.e. not already in possession of a doctoral degree at the date of the recruitment.
• Recruited researchers can be of any nationality and must comply with the following mobility rule: they must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the recruiting beneficiary for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before their recruitment date. For this particular position, the candidate must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in France for more than 12 months in the 36 months preceding 01.07.2026.
• The Recruited researchers must hold a relevant master’s degree or must obtain a relevant master’s degree before the start of the contract.

Refer Section 1.3.2. of the MSCA Work Programme (here ) for more details.