Research Associate in CANOPY Project

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Job title Research Associate in CANOPY Project Job reference REQ
260533 Date posted 29/07/2026 Final date to receive applications 24/08/2026 Location Loughborough Package Specialist and Supporting Academic Research grade 6 from £35608

Job description

Full time, fixed term,18months,
starting Sept
14
th
2026

Joinusandbepartofavibrantcommunityat Loughborough University .

This role is part of an Innovate UK-funded project developing the first autonomous canopy-zone-specific crop protection robot system for protected strawberry production. We are looking for an ambitious Research Associate who would like to contribute to the development of a novel autonomous robotic platform capable of precisely delivering biological and chemical crop protection treatments within commercial strawberry polytunnels. This post will focus on developing and integrating roboticperception,localisationand manipulation technologies to enableaccuratedetection and treatment of specific crop canopy zones.

Working as part of a multidisciplinary academic and industrial research team, the successful candidate will develop andvalidatenovel LiDAR and vision-based algorithms, integrate these with a robotic manipulator and conduct laboratory and commercial field trials. The researcher will also work closely with project partners to support system integration, projectdeliveryand the dissemination of research findings through technical reports, academicpublicationsand conferences.

Universities are one of this country’s greatest assets.

We’re educators, employers, innovators and pioneers. We shapecultureand society.

At Loughborough, we strive for better, think differently, challengeconventionand take action. We are passionate about finding solutions to the major problems faced by society and the planet, and we create opportunities for those with the drive, the ambition, and the determination to apply themselves in the pursuit of better.

The successful candidate will be jointly hosted within the department of Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering .Working within the Loughborough University Centre for Autonomous Systemscontributing to a multidisciplinary research environment focused on autonomous robotic systems and their application to real-world challenges.

• a PhD or bevery nearcompletion in a relevant field
• a background in robotics or autonomous systems
• experience with robot manipulators and roboticperception
• experience withROS/ROS2and programming skills withC++ and/or Python
• a track recordin authoring original work for academic journal papers or similar

Experience in…