Open positions

General postdoc call: There are ample funding opportunities for postdocs. Doctoral students about to complete their studies, fresh PhD graduates, or postdocs are welcome to contact me and join our team. What is needed is a track record in the specific topics of my research. 

Specific postdoc call -  Fully funded position: Neuro-inspired versatile resilient robots with whole-body tactile sensing  (from April 2024)


There is a fully funded postdoc position in the context of a new large project ROBOPROX (Robotics and advanced industrial production) at the Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic.  The ROBOPROX project builds on top of the world-leading and international excellence performance in robotics, computer science, optimization, control, and material sciences. It aims to provide complex, modular, and reconfigurable industrial solutions aligning directly with Industry 4.0. The wide range of topics is interconnected under the project motto: "Nothing is more practical than well-applied theory." You will join a team of 100 senior and 70 junior researchers from 17 research teams with a high focus on multidisciplinary and international collaboration.


Topic: Neuo-inspired versatile resilient robots with whole-body tactile sensing

In animals and humans, contacts with the environment are not avoided and sometimes even actively sought. We will deploy this inspiration from biology to design truly robust machines with distributed control systems, exploiting whole-body contacts with the environment. The main platforms will be robot manipulators or humanoids completely covered with sensitive electronic skin, learning their controllers in a biomimetic fashion (e.g., emulation of sense of pain, withdrawal reflex). The final scenario will be reaching and grasping objects exploiting whole-body contacts, with no or sparse visual inputs. We will demonstrate that reaching and grasping tasks can be accomplished even if conditions dramatically change, for instance when encoder values are manipulated with large offsets, a joint is completely blocked, or a camera observing the workspace is significantly distorted. 


Group and supervision: Research will be conducted within the Humanoid and Cognitive Robotics Group (https://cyber.felk.cvut.cz/research/groups-teams/humanoids/) under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Matej Hoffmann. There are several state-of-the-art robot platforms, many with electronic skin, available at the group: iCub humanoid robot with whole-body skin, collaborative robot manipulators (UR10e with Airskin, KUKA LBR iiwa, Kinova Gen3).  A motion capture system, professional impact measuring devices, and several robot hands and grippers (e.g. Barrett Hand) are also available. The group has extensive experience in physical and social HRI, biologically inspired robotics, and tactile sensing. 

See: https://sites.google.com/site/matejhof/research/touch-and-selfcalibration and https://sites.google.com/site/matejhof/research/cobots-and-hri for our works on related topics. 

Czech Technical University in Prague ranks #5 in Europe in Computer Vision and #8 in Robotics according to the Computer Science Rankings (CSRankings).


Academic collaboration:   

Industrial collaboration:   


What we offer:

The funding is available for up to 2.5 years. Starting and finishing dates are flexible.  

The postdoc will independently conduct research and will also be involved in shaping the research of the group and supervising students. 

This is a research position with focus on excellent publications and no teaching obligations. If the candidate is interested in teaching experience, it will be possible. 


Explore Prague: 

There is currently a very lively international ecosystem in the areas of robotics and AI - at the Department and in Prague in general. See, for example, https://prg.ai/en/.  

Prague was TripAdvisor's #7,#8, and #11 world's top destinations in the years 2017-19. Beautiful mountain landscapes and historic cities are within reach. Owing to Czechia’s Schengen-area membership, numerous exquisite European destinations can be reached from Prague with no border restrictions or delays. 


What we are looking for:

We seek highly motivated applicants with a PhD in robotics, AI, or related fields and a proven track record - publications in top conferences or journals - relevant to the topic. 


How to apply: 

Please send your application or inquiries to Prof. Matej Hoffmann (matej.hoffmann at fel.cvut.cz), with “ROBOPROX - Postdoc application” in the title and include the following, preferably in a single pdf file:


The position is open until filled. 

Video above: The iCub humanoid robot playing a card game with whole-body avoidance drawing on touch, proximity, and vision. 

Figure above: Robot manipulator with whole-body tactile sensing searching for and grasping objects in complete absence of vision.