Research Associate/Senior Research Associate in Control for Soft Robot Wearable Assistance

Salary: 

£39,096 - £44,746 (Grade I); or

£44,746 – £50,253 (Grade J) per annum, depending on experience

The role

We are looking for a highly skilled & motivated individual with, near completion of, a PhD degree in Mechanical/ Electronic/ Robotic Engineering or related discipline who will develop novel control methods for soft robotic wearable systems to help older people and people with disabilities to live independently.

This Research Associate/Senior Research Associate position is part of the £14 million (€17 million) EPSRC project: The VIVO Hub for Enhanced Independence Living (https://www.thevivohub.com/). The VIVO Hub aims to create an integrated user-guided physical-digital healthcare intervention platform, leveraging digital and robotic technologies to assist the ageing and disabled population in maintaining activity, physical health, and mental well-being at home. The VIVO Hub will address the four critical challenges of mobility restoration, underlying physical conditions, personalised function restoration and real-world demonstration, co-designed with end users and medical professionals, in readiness for clinical trials and commercialisation. The project is led by Professor Jonathan Rossiter from the University of Bristol and co-leaders from University College London, Imperial College London, the University of Strathclyde, and the University of West England.

The project will be based at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory (https://www.bristolroboticslab.com/), the largest centre for multidisciplinary research in the UK. It will operate within the Bristol Soft Robotics Group (http://www.bristol.ac.uk/softlab, @SoftLabBristol), a vibrant and exciting group with over 55 members. You will use dedicated facilities and expertise from the Robotics Lab in addition to those of the Faculties of Engineering and Science at the University of Bristol & project partners

What will you be doing?

• Undertake fundamental and applied research and development on technologies to control artificial muscle-driven wearable assist devices & exosuits within the Bristol Soft Robotics research group, under the supervision of the project investigators.
• Collaborate and leverage multi-disciplinary resources within the multi-institute team to develop wearable assistive technologies that help people live independently for longer.
• Conduct appropriate experiments, develop prototypes, and analyse data to advance research.
• Produce impactful research outputs, including high-quality publications, conference presentations, and demonstrator devices, with the potential to generate patentable innovations & translate them into real-world applications.
• Collaborate with project partners, including healthcare professionals & industrial partners, on project activities.

You should apply if

• You have practical experience in developing control systems for wearable system, e.g. central pattern generators, predictive control, adaptive control.
• You have a good track record of published research (Grade-I: Write up results from their own research activity & contribute to the research project’s dissemination, in an appropriate form (report, papers, chapters, book, conference posters & presentations; Grade-J: track records of published scientific results as a lead author).
• You have knowledge of the state-of-the-art technologies and contexts of control for artificial muscles & soft actuators.
• You have ability to rapidly learn & develop control methods for soft actuation technologies.
• You are comfortable working on systems involving multiple disciplines including electrical,mechanical and materials development.
• (Grade-I) Have, or be near completion of PhD or equivalent in fundamental technologies or applied science for the control of artificial muscles & soft actuators. This may include, but is not limited to, qualification in soft robotics or related robotics / control systems / smart materials / mechatronics / engineering technologies / biomedical engineering / transduction mechanisms.  (Grade-J) Experience of research independence.

Additional information

Contract Type: Open-ended with fixed funding for 24 months

Interviews will be held on Thursday 1st October 2026.

For informal queries please contact: 

Prof Jonathan Rossiter - Jonathan.Rossiter@bristol.ac.uk - +44(0)117 455 5695