Job profile

THE PROJECT

The University of Essex in partnership with JEPCO offers an exciting opportunity to a graduate with the relevant skills and knowledge to work on an exiting project ‘SCARLETT’ funded by the competitive Farming Innovation Pathways Program of Innovate UK.

SCARLETT (‘Scalable and resource efficient indoor Robotic harvesting of Lettuce’) is an ambitious project that transforms how crop is grown in the farm' with 'structure, scalability', simplifying the harvesting workflow into small, well-defined tasks where robots can be deployed to perform 'repetitive, laborious' jobs with high efficiency. The bidirectional innovation envisaged by SCARLETT on one hand alleviates the 'hard problems' in deploying robots (in a harsh unstructured settings) to be commercially viable and at the same time enables robotic automation to significantly scale up production with resource efficiency. The Research officer will work on the country’s only deep water pool system for indoor salad crop/ Lettuce harvesting, with state of the robot technology, a cross disciplinary team or robotics researchers, plant biologists and leading producers of salad crops in the UK.

DUTIES OF THE POST

The duties of the post will include:

• Reviewing the current workflow in the existing Lettuce Harvesting Production line and specification of the functional requirements of the new SCARLETT system
• Designing, developing, and testing an initial prototype Robot ‘Perception-Action-Decision making’ software for 2 Kinds of robotic Pick and Place tasks- from the pond to the conveyor belt and vice versa
• Developing Algorithms/Software for transplanting Lettuce plants from smaller to larger floats
• Picking and Placing fully grown Lettuce plants into the conveyor belt for packaging, after cutting the root (with a custom designed and 3D printed end effector)
• Designing and conducting product testing exercises, analysing results and iterating software as required
• Supporting company scale up and implementation of robotic devices, as well as exploitation of new SCARLETT technology
• Embedding technology and upskilling company staff

KEY REQUIREMENTS

The post holder must have:

• A first degree in Robotics/Control Engineering/Computer Science
• Demonstrable experience of working with Robots (ex. Service Robots, Industrial Robots, Cobots)
• Advanced Knowledge of C++ and Python Programming and experience of programming robotic devices.
• Knowledge of CAD tools like Solid works, Mechatronics
• Advanced knowledge experience in ROS and large scale software development, system integration
• Knowledge and experience of robotics techniques (motion control)
• Experience in Tensorflow and/or using Machine Learning libraries (CNN’s, GANS)
• Experience in working with neural networks and machine learning
• Experience of, or the ability to, publish research papers
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to interface with people with commercial interests and from varied technical backgrounds.

LOCATION

This post is based primarily between the University of Essex and JEPCO’s 1.4Ha indoor harvesting facility producing 1.95 Million plants annually (which is just 10 min drive from the University campus).

University of Essex Robotics Lab:

University of Essex Colchester Campus,

Boundary Rd,

Colchester,

CO4 3ZQ

Jepco Glebe Ltd

Whitehouse Farm

Church Road

Thorrington

Essex

CO7 8HS

At the University of Essex, internationalism and diversity is central to who we are and what we do. We are committed to being a cosmopolitan, internationally oriented university that is welcoming to staff and students from all countries, faiths and backgrounds, where you can find the world in one place.

To support this commitment we have our Global Forum, a staff-led network that promotes and celebrates the rich cultural diversity among Essex staff, and our Colchester campus based Faith Centre, which hosts regular services, meetings and events organised by our chaplains and faith representatives.

Please see the attached job pack, which contains a full job description and person specification which outlines the full duties, skills, qualifications and experience needed for this role plus more information relating to the post. We recommend you read this information carefully before making an application.  Applications should be made on-line, but if you would like advice or help in making an application, or need information in a different format, please contact resourcing@essex.ac.uk

*More information: Working at the University