Postdoc Researcher in Robot Learning - Obuda University iROB Center

Research Areas

We are looking for a highly motivated researcher to advance robot learning for humanoid platforms, with a strong emphasis on contact-rich and whole-body behaviors.

Reinforcement Learning (RL)

Focus on dexterous manipulation, including multi-fingered hands, in-hand manipulation, tool use, and compliant control.

VLA-related Robot Learning

Vision–language–action or vision–language–agent style policies, including grounding, generalization, and instruction-following for manipulation.

Tractable & Explainable AI

Interpretable policy representations, uncertainty estimation, safety constraints, and verifiable/diagnosable decision-making.

Deployment Pipelines

Spanning simulation-to-real transfer, calibration, runtime monitoring, testing, and continuous improvement of humanoid applications.

Qualifications & Expectations

Required Qualifications

• PhD in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical/Mechanical Engineering, or a closely related field (completed by start date)
• Strong record of research productivity (peer-reviewed journal publications)
• Solid foundations in machine learning, including deep learning, RL, transformers
• Hands-on experience with robotics software stacks (ROS/ROS 2, modern middleware)
• Python and C++ development for real-time or near-real-time robotic applications
• Proven ability to run rigorous experiments and perform reproducible research

Preferred Experience (Nice-to-have)

• Demonstrated success with real-world dexterous manipulation on hardware (e.g., Allegro/Shadow/Leap hands or equivalent)
• Experience with physics simulation and differentiable/fast simulators (e.g., MuJoCo, Isaac Gym/Isaac Sim, PyBullet, RaiSim)
• Background in trajectory optimization / MPC / whole-body optimization for humanoids
• Contributions to open-source robotics or ML toolkits
• Strong mentoring record (supervising MSc/PhD students, leading projects)

Deliverables & Impact Expectations

✓ Publish research outcomes in top-tier robotics/ML venues
✓ Prototype and validate humanoid manipulation capabilities on hardware
✓ Produce reusable components for the end-to-end deployment pipeline
✓ Contribute to grant writing and student mentoring

"We value a research mindset with independent direction, excellent communication, and a strict commitment to safe experimentation on humanoid platforms."

Scholarship Package & Application Details

Position & Title

PostDoc Excellence Researcher

Funding

€2,500 / month (gross)

Freely usable in compliance with legal provisions.

Supported Period

72 Months

Application Deadline

March 15, 2026

Submit applications electronically to:

rektor@uni-obuda.hu postdocOU@uni-obuda.hu

Hardware & Infrastructure

As a postdoc researcher, you will have direct access to our state-of-the-art laboratory to test your models on real-world humanoid and industrial platforms.