Physics-Embedded Perception and Predictive Modelling for Resilient Human-Robot Collaboration

About the project

About the Project Human-robot collaboration (HRC) is becoming central to manufacturing, healthcare and service robotics, where robots must share dynamic spaces with human partners. Despite recent advances in perception, SLAM and motion prediction, most HRC systems still treat perception, prediction and decision-making as loosely coupled modules. This makes them fragile under cluttered scenes, occlusions and unpredictable human behaviour, where perceptual noise propagates into unstable predictions and overly conservative or unsafe robot actions. This PhD will explore the unified framework that tightly couples physics-embedded scene reasoning with uncertainty-aware modelling of human motion, enabling proactive and resilient collaboration. Two challenges will be addressed: (1) Physics-embedded scene reasoning, fusing multimodalities with physical priors and domain-specific scene primitives (e.g., manufacturing, care environments), so that the robot understands not only what and where objects are, but how they move, deform and afford interaction; and (2) Uncertainty-aware human motion modelling and control, developing probabilistic, physics-informed predictors conditioned on the embedded scene, propagating uncertainty into joint human-robot occupancy estimates and feeding these into a conflict-aware decision layer that balances short-term safety against long-term task efficiency. The framework will be validated in simulation and on real robotic platforms at UoM. Eligibility Applicants should have or expect to achieve at least a UK 2.1 honours degree in Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Computer Science or related disciplines. Experience in robotics, autonomous system and machine vision development will be an advantage. Funding This is a 3.5-year PhD. Excellent candidates will be nominated for competence-based faculty funding through the School of Engineering. The funding covers tuition fees and provides a tax-free stipend based on the UKRI rate (£21,805 for 2026/27). We expect the stipend to increase each year. Self-funded students are also welcome to apply. We recommend that you apply early as the advertisement may be removed before the yearly circled deadline. Before you apply We strongly recommend that you contact the supervisor for this project before you apply. Please include details of your current level of study, academic background and any relevant experience and include a paragraph about your motivation to study this PhD project. How to apply Apply online through our website: https://uom.link/pgr-apply-2425 When applying, you’ll need to specify the full name of this project, the name of your supervisor, if you already having funding or if you wish to be considered for available funding through the university, details of your previous study, and names and contact details of two referees. Your application will not be processed without all of the required documents submitted at the time of application, and we cannot accept responsibility for late or missed deadlines. Incomplete applications will not be considered. After you have applied you will be asked to upload the following supporting documents: Final Transcript and certificates of all awarded university level qualifications Interim Transcript of any university level qualifications in progress CV Supporting statement: A one or two page statement outlining your motivation to pursue postgraduate research and why you want to undertake postgraduate research at Manchester, any relevant research or work experience, the key findings of your previous research experience, and techniques and skills you’ve developed. (This is mandatory for all applicants and the application will be put on hold without it). Contact details for two referees (please make sure that the contact email you provide is an official university/work email address as we may need to verify the reference) English Language certificate (if applicable) If you have any questions about making an application, please contact our admissions team by emailing FSE.doctoralacademy.admissions@manchester.ac.uk . Equality, diversity and inclusion is fundamental to the success of The University of Manchester, and is at the heart of all of our activities. We know that diversity strengthens our research community, leading to enhanced research creativity, productivity and quality, and societal and economic impact. We actively encourage applicants from diverse career paths and backgrounds and from all sections of the community, regardless of age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation and transgender status. We also support applications from those returning from a career break or other roles. We consider offering flexible study arrangements (including part-time: 50%, 60% or 80%, depending on the project/funder).

Research areas