Research Positions Opening Soon

Research Contracts in Virtual Reality Environments for IFMIF-DONES Maintenance

The Virtual reAlity Lab for sciEntific and industRIal fAcilities (VALERIAlab) research group is looking for talented and motivated professionals to strengthen the recently created laboratory at the University of Granada. This lab currently includes 6 multidisciplinary professionals (including graduate students and faculty members) and aims to develop ground-breaking control systems based on virtual reality technologies. Additional positions are expected to be filled in the next few months.

Research topic

Remote handling (RH) technologies represent a critical piece for environments where human intervention is not possible. In particular, the presence of human operators in contaminated/activated areas is highly constrained, due to the serious consequences that exposure may have in the operators’ health. Thus, challenging environments require the use of specific tools and devices to support inspection, diagnose and maintenance tasks.

Digital simulation in virtual reality environments is today a common practice for the design of assembly and maintenance processes. Identification of critical paths in the maintenance operations to be performed helps the designer, among other things, in the selection of optimised procedures and in the estimation of the total duration of the processes under evaluation. Indeed, simulation of the virtual RH tasks allows the validation of the different tasks, assesses their feasibility and optimises the resources required before the infrastructure is built. In addition to this, the simulations need to be dynamic, immersive and interactive towards early detection of potential problems in maintenance tasks and operators’ training.

The successful candidates will work in the framework of the future IFMIF-DONES facility (expected to be located in Escúzar, Granada, Spain) with close collaboration with the international EuroFUSION initiative. They will be in charge of developing highly interactive virtual reality technologies to simulate and control logistics and maintenance tasks in the facility.

Requirements

Different profiles will be considered to fill these positions:

1. Game developers or, more generally, virtual environment designers with proven expertise in Unity3D (or similar) framework.
2. Virtual/Mixed/Augmented reality developers with expertise in integrating visualization and interactive devices (e.g. head-mounted displays, virtual-reality caves, haptic devices for force-feedback environments).
3. Industrial engineers with previous experience on controlling collaborative robots.

For any of the mentioned profiles, the following skills will be highly valued:

• University Degree (BSc, MSc, PhD).
• Expertise on creation of virtual environments with Unity3D or other similar physical engines.
• Knowledge of CAD tools for engineering design and simulation.
• Strong programming skills (e.g. Python, C++, C#…).
• Expertise on using robotics middleware (e.g. ROS).
• Previous expertise on using immersive technologies, such as force-feedback manipulators, mixed reality displays (e.g. Microsoft Hololens), HMD with eye-tracking systems,…
• Proficiency in English.

What do we offer?

The successful candidate will join our young, international and multidisciplinary VALERIA lab in the city centre of Granada.

• He/she will obtain a one-year research contract, extendable for additional years.
• Graduate students will have the chance to do a PhD Thesis in the field at the University of Granada.
• He/she will gain valuable expertise in maintenance and logistics for a future career at the IFMIF-DONES facility.
• Gross salaries will range between 1600€/month and 2400€/month depending on previous expertise in the field of application.

How to apply?

Candidates should send a single pdf file, consisting of a 1-page motivation letter and CV to jesusgarrido@ugr.es. Any informal inquiries can be addressed to the same email. The positions will be open until filled.