Swarm Robotics and Collective Learning Engineer (M/F)

Job Description

Missions

he mechatronics engineer will contribute to the development, improvement, and operation of experimental swarm robotics platforms designed to investigate collective behaviours, self-organisation, and distributed learning in robotic systems.

Working within a research team combining active matter physics, robotics, and artificial intelligence, she will contribute to the design of autonomous, miniaturised, and communicating robotic systems, as well as to their integration into experimental setups aimed at studying the emergence of collective behaviours from local interactions.

The work will notably build on the Pogobots platform, with a view to extending it towards robots capable of assembling, disassembling, and interacting mechanically, as well as towards materials composed of communicating actuators.

Activity

1. Development and Enhancement of Robotic Platforms

* Design, improve, and integrate the mechanical, electronic, and embedded components of the robots.
* Develop new functionalities, including locomotion, sensing, inter-robot communication, actuation, and mechanical assembly.
* Carry out prototyping, testing, characterisation, and validation of new devices.
* Ensure the robustness, reproducibility, and maintainability of the platforms, particularly for experiments involving several dozen or hundreds of robots.

2. Development of Embedded and Control Systems

* Develop and maintain embedded software for robot control, data acquisition, and communications.
* Implement decentralised control strategies and robot interaction algorithms in collaboration with researchers.
* Incorporate the robots' physical constraints (energy, locomotion, memory, communication) into experimental protocols.
* Develop tools for programming, diagnostics, and simultaneous software updates across robot populations.

3. Design and Implementation of Experimental Setups

* Develop the equipment required for the quantitative study of collective behaviours, including experimental arenas, observation systems, lighting, control interfaces, and data acquisition systems.
* Contribute to the implementation of automated systems for tracking robot positions, orientations, and internal states.
* Design and conduct experiments involving interactions between robots and their environment, particularly under conditions of confinement, cooperation, or mechanical constraints.
* Ensure the calibration, synchronisation, and reliability of measurements.

4. Contribution to Scientific Projects

* Help translate scientific questions into technical specifications and experimental protocols.
* Participate in experimental campaigns focusing on self-organisation, collective learning, and distributed intelligence.
* Develop the tools required to conduct reproducible experiments and acquire quantitative data.
* Collaborate with researchers, PhD students, and partners in robotics, physics, and artificial intelligence to adapt the platforms to emerging scientific questions.

5. Technical Management and Dissemination

* Manage the technical documentation, maintenance, and ongoing development of the platforms.
* Coordinate the monitoring of components, suppliers, orders, and manufacturing operations.
* Contribute to sharing hardware and software developments through an open approach (open hardware and open source).
* Contribute to user training and knowledge transfer within the team and among project partners.

Your Profil

Skills

Mechatronics: Design and integration of systems combining mechanical components, electronics, sensors, and actuators.

Electronics: Circuit design and characterisation, instrumentation, power management, and communications.

Embedded Systems: Microcontroller programming (C/C++), hardware interfaces, peripheral management, and communications.

Mechanical Engineering: CAD, prototyping, additive manufacturing, micro-assembly, and integration of miniaturised mechanisms.

Robotics: Mobile robot control, actuation, locomotion, sensors, and hardware and software architectures.

Programming: Python, C/C++, data acquisition, automation, and data processing tools.

Instrumentation: Development of experimental setups, measurement synchronisation and calibration.

Development Methods: Testing, diagnostics, documentation, version control (Git), validation, and reliability improvement.

Desirable Skills and Experience:

* Experience with multi-robot systems, swarm robotics, or distributed systems.
* Knowledge of wireless communication protocols and local communication architectures.
* Experience with image processing, trajectory tracking, and computer vision.
* Knowledge of real-time control systems and decentralised architectures.
* Familiarity with machine learning or reinforcement learning algorithms.
* Interest in the physics of complex systems, active matter, and self-organisation phenomena.

Your Work Environment

The position is part of the research activities of the Gulliver Laboratory (CNRS / ESPCI Paris – PSL), at the interface between active matter physics, collective robotics, and artificial intelligence.

The projects developed within the laboratory aim to understand how complex collective behaviours, adaptive capabilities, and forms of distributed intelligence can emerge from local interactions between large numbers of autonomous agents. They rely on an approach combining experiments, theoretical modelling, and numerical simulations.

A central challenge is to develop robotic platforms that make it possible to experimentally investigate the relationships between the physical properties of agents, mechanical interactions, communication, learning, and collective organisation. The laboratory notably operates the Pogobots platform, consisting of small autonomous, communicating mobile robots that can be used to conduct experiments with swarms ranging from several dozen to around one hundred individuals.

Future developments will focus both on improving this platform and on designing new robotic systems, including robots capable of assembling into reconfigurable structures and materials composed of communicating actuators.

In this context, the mechatronics engineer will play a key role in the design, development, and improvement of the reliability of experimental systems. She will work closely with researchers, PhD students, and project partners to translate scientific objectives into original technological solutions.

The position therefore has a strong focus on instrumental research and development and involves a broad range of skills, from mechanical and electronic design to embedded programming and the integration of complex robotic systems.

These developments will be carried out within interdisciplinary and international collaborations, with the ambition of creating original, reproducible experimental platforms that are openly available to the scientific community.

Constraints and risks

The work will be carried out in an experimental research environment involving the development of mechatronic prototypes and innovative robotic systems.

Specific requirements:

* Laboratory work combining design, prototyping, programming, assembly, and characterisation of experimental systems.
* Use of electronic equipment, precision mechanical tools, soldering equipment, and additive manufacturing technologies.
* Ability to adapt technical developments to evolving scientific objectives and the specific constraints of research projects.
* Occasional work outside normal working hours may be required during experimental campaigns, maintenance operations, or demonstrations.
* Occasional travel to scientific and technical partner institutions in France or abroad.

Occupational risks:

The position does not involve any unusual occupational constraints or risks beyond those typically associated with research and development activities in mechatronics and experimental robotics.

All activities will be carried out in compliance with the laboratory's health and safety regulations, with appropriate training, protective equipment, and risk-prevention procedures.

Compensation and benefits

Compensation

from 2572 € gross / month according to experience

Annual leave and RTT

44 jours

Remote Working practice and compensation

Pratique et indemnisation du TT

Transport

Prise en charge à 75% du coût et forfait mobilité durable jusqu’à 300€

About the offer

About the CNRS

The CNRS is a major player in fundamental research on a global scale. The CNRS is the only French organization active in all scientific fields. Its unique position as a multi-specialist allows it to bring together different disciplines to address the most important challenges of the contemporary world, in connection with the actors of change.

CNRS

The research professions