School of Computer Science

Location:  Lincoln 
Salary:   From £33,199 per annum
This post is fixed term until 30th April 2021, and FTE 1.0
Closing Date:   Tuesday 02 July 2019
Interview Date:   Thursday 18 July 2019 

The University of Lincoln and ARWAC Ltd are looking to recruit two Postdoctoral Research Fellows to join an exciting new Innovate UK funded project, to support the development of a commercial robot to remove blackgrass from arable crops without the use of herbicide. 

Both roles will involve working alongside researchers at the University of Lincoln and leading industry experts. The Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Robotics Control and Vision Systems will play an integral role in systems integration, including communications, sensors and control systems, which will enable the robot to navigate to areas of high blackgrass density by following crop rows.

We have also advertised the other available position 'Research Fellow in Multispectral Imaging and Machine Learning separately. They will be responsible for planning, collecting and analysing imagery to detect and map blackgrass. The candidate will then exploit these maps to design route planning algorithms to efficiently travel to the main infestations. If you are interested in this position, please apply for that separately.

This is a great opportunity to contribute to a collaborative academic / industry project, working as part of a team to develop the world’s first autonomous weeding system in narrow row crops, which has the potential to significantly reduce the impact of a major threat to UK food production. 

The work will incorporate and build on the successful IBEX2 agri-robotics technology, which was selected as an exemplary project by Innovate UK. Applicants will need to demonstrate an interest in agriculture and significant skills and experience in relevant computer sciences. They will also have the ability to work as part of a multidisciplinary team, including excellent verbal and written communication. Applicants should have, or expect to soon obtain, a PhD (or equivalent) in a relevant area, also excellent mathematical and coding skills (C++/Python, ROS, PCL, OpenCV). 

Please note, both roles are 100% FTE role, comprising 20% FTE employment with the University of Lincoln and 80% FTE employment with ARWAC Ltd. Each appointment will be made following one joint interview panel. Both roles will be based at the University of Lincoln Riseholme campus, but will involve travel to partner sites, including farms across Lincolnshire. 

For further details please contact Dr Charles Fox: cfox@lincoln.ac.uk