PhD Position F/M Campagne/Welcome Package - Learning robotic manipulation at scale
Contract type : Fixed-term contract
Level of qualifications required : Graduate degree or equivalent
Fonction : PhD Position
Context
The work will be conducted in the WILLOW team at Inria Paris research center. Renowned for its exceptional work in computer vision and robotics, the WILLOW team has consistently produced high-quality research, resulting in publications in major journals and conferences.
As part of the team, you will have access to a well-established laboratory featuring multiple robotic arms, hands, quadrupeds, bipeds, and mobile manipulators.
Additionally, you can expect frequent visits and talks by esteemed researchers from top research laboratories around the world. Opportunities abound for collaboration with leading researchers both in Europe and globally.
Furthermore, you will join an international and welcoming team environment, where we regularly organize various events ranging from casual after-work gatherings to multi-day lab retreats.
Assignment
Assignments :
Imagine a household robot capable of performing various chores, from cleaning houses to folding clothes, rearranging items and even cooking meals. While existing robotic hardware is able to handle such diverse tasks, e.g., through tele-operation, a critical gap exists in the development of models that enable robots to autonomously execute these activities and generalize across different environments. The goal of the position is to bridge this gap by learning robotic policies to perform a wide range of daily tasks in real-world environments.
Data plays an important role for robot learning. The data typically used in training can be divided into three categories: real robot data, simulated robot data and real-world Internet data. The real robot data requires many robots and human tele-operation to collect, remaining limited in scale and diversity to learn various robot skills. The simulated robot data is easier to construct, but still requires much engineering work to create scripts and suffers from a sim-to-real gap. The real-world Internet data though is large-scale and contains real-world interactions, it does not have action annotations for robot training.
In this project, the candidate will explore different ways to overcome the data limitations to scale up robot skill learning, including but not limited to: 1) utilizing robot play data to avoid cost of human tele-operation; 2) taking advantage of foundation models to automatically generate simulated data; 3) learning policies from human-object interaction videos.
Supervisors :
Shizhe Chen, Cordelia Schmid
Main activities
- Read papers
- Propose methods
- Conduct experiments
- Analyze results
- Write papers
- Present work in conferences
- Write a doctoral thesis
Skills
The candidate must have an excellent track of records and a Master Degree (or equivalent). The candidate must have the following qualifications:
- Strong background in computer vision, robotics, or related fields
- Excellent programming skill in Python and Pytorch
- Strong proficiency in both written and spoken English
- Ability to work independently as well as collaboratively
- Ability and desire to read prior work and to build upon it in one’s own work.
Benefits package
- Subsidized meals
- Partial reimbursement of public transport costs
- Leave: 7 weeks of annual leave + 10 extra days off due to RTT (statutory reduction in working hours) + possibility of exceptional leave (sick children, moving home, etc.)
- Possibility of teleworking
- Flexible organization of working hours (after 12 months of employment)
- Professional equipment available (videoconferencing, loan of computer equipment, etc.)
- Social, cultural and sports events and activities
- Access to vocational training
- Social security coverage
Remuneration
According to civil service salary scales
General Information
- Theme/Domain :
Vision, perception and multimedia interpretation
Scientific computing (BAP E) - Town/city : Paris
- Inria Center : Centre Inria de Paris
- Starting date : 2024-10-01
- Duration of contract : 3 years
- Deadline to apply : 2024-05-19
Warning : you must enter your e-mail address in order to save your application to Inria. Applications must be submitted online on the Inria website. Processing of applications sent from other channels is not guaranteed.
Instruction to apply
In your application (which can be in English or in French), please include:
- CV
- Letter of motivation
- Letters of recommendation
- Master's grades
Defence Security :
This position is likely to be situated in a restricted area (ZRR), as defined in Decree No. 2011-1425 relating to the protection of national scientific and technical potential (PPST).Authorisation to enter an area is granted by the director of the unit, following a favourable Ministerial decision, as defined in the decree of 3 July 2012 relating to the PPST. An unfavourable Ministerial decision in respect of a position situated in a ZRR would result in the cancellation of the appointment.
Recruitment Policy :
As part of its diversity policy, all Inria positions are accessible to people with disabilities.
Contacts
- Inria Team : WILLOW
-
PhD Supervisor :
Chen Shizhe / shizhe.chen@inria.fr
The keys to success
- A strong work ethic and dedication to the research process
- Effective communication skills
- Critical thinking
- Resilience and perseverance
About Inria
Inria is the French national research institute dedicated to digital science and technology. It employs 2,600 people. Its 200 agile project teams, generally run jointly with academic partners, include more than 3,500 scientists and engineers working to meet the challenges of digital technology, often at the interface with other disciplines. The Institute also employs numerous talents in over forty different professions. 900 research support staff contribute to the preparation and development of scientific and entrepreneurial projects that have a worldwide impact.