Mechanical - Mechatronics Engineer Or Technician. Design Prototyping And Integration Of Components For Arm-Wheelchair Assistance - Extender Project H/F

INRIA

Mechanical/Mechatronics Engineer or Technician. Design, prototyping, and integration of components for arm-wheelchair assistance - Extender project
Le descriptif de l'offre ci-dessous est en Anglais
Type de contrat : CDD

Niveau de diplôme exigé : Bac +5 ou équivalent

Autre diplôme apprécié : Candidates with a bachelor's degree (L3 / DUT / BUT) with some past experience can also apply

Fonction : Ingénieur scientifique contractuel

A propos du centre ou de la direction fonctionnelle

The Inria center at the University of Bordeaux is one of the nine Inria centers in France and has about twenties research teams.. The Inria centre is a major and recognized player in the field of digital sciences. It is at the heart of a rich R&D and innovation ecosystem: highly innovative SMEs, large industrial groups, competitiveness clusters, research and higher education players, laboratories of excellence, technological research institute...

Contexte et atouts du poste

The Inria center of the University of Bordeaux is a public scientific institute located in Talence (France). The Auctus team (https://auctus-team.gitlabpages.inria.fr/) is approximately composed of 15 people whose core expertise ranges from robotics design/control to cognitive sciences including biomechanics and numerical constrained optimization. The recruited person will have the opportunity to benefit from exchanges with these people but will also be working closely with:

- Esteban Cosserat, research engineer in charge of the developments in control and perception for the Extender project at Auctus, he develops different control laws and interaction modalities for the EXPLORER robotic arm.
- Vincent Padois, research scientist and PI of the Extender project for the Auctus team with a core scientific expertise in robot control, especially in the collaborative context;
- Margot Vulliez, research scientist in the Auctus team with a core scientific expertise in robot design and shared control as well as teleoperation;
- Lucas Joseph, research engineer at Inria strongly involved in the research projets of the Auctus team both in terms on the development of control software libraries and in terms of setting-up and running experimental developments.

Experimental facilities and workshops with some prototyping tools will be accessible to the hired person to develop the different solutions.

Mission confiée

The Extender project, led by a consortium of both academic, industrial and medical partners, aims at applying approaches developed in collaborative robotics research to assistive technology for people with disabilities. Indeed, installing an assistance robotic arm on a wheelchair is foreseen as an opportunity to help individuals with limited arm or hand mobility perform complex tasks, offering greater autonomy. This requires a user-centered approach to ensure the technology meets specific needs, is adaptable, and easy to use, driving adoption. This project is part of the France 2030 program, which promotes the transfer of technological building blocks from laboratories to innovative companies.

The involved robotics research partners, such as the Auctus team, apply state-of-the-art robotic control approaches to propose innovative solutions for disability assistance. We specifically focus on developing a range of control methods, that vary teleoperation modalities and levels of robotic assistance, while enforcing safety constraints to ensure secure human-robot interaction. All developments are integrated and tested in real-world settings with the EXPLORER arm from the industrial partner ORTHOPUS.

Within the context of this project, we are hiring an Engineer or a Technician with a background in Mechanical Engineering or Mechatronics, to support the development and implementation of these experimental validations on tangible use cases. The recruited engineer/technician will integrate the Auctus team at Inria (Talence, Campus de l'Université de Bordeaux). They will collaborate with engineers and researchers, both in the Auctus team and in the global project consortium, to best use the abilities of the EXPLORER arm as well as to compare and share the developed components.

Principales activités

The main objective of this position is to design, prototype, and integrate different hardware components into the experimental platform to advance arm-wheelchair assistance. The developments can range from the design of height-adjustable and movable/lockable robotic arm workbenches to user-specific teleoperation interfaces. The missions of the recruited person will be to:

- Get familiar with the project experimental platform and gain hands-on experience with the EXPLORER robotic arm to understand the project context, the hardware specificities, and the experimental possibilities.
- Survey the ongoing developments carried out by the Auctus team and the other project partners to better understand the tackled use cases and to identify the need for hardware improvements to the arm-wheelchair platform.
- Given the identified needs, study existing solutions and new potential concepts to meet the design requirements. Compare the feasibility of the different solutions and select the most appropriate.
- Design the detailed mechanisms/components and perform its mechanical sizing, and select appropriate actuators/sensors when needed, with respect to the targeted applications. A technical documentation containing all sizing notes, CAD files, drawings, actuator/sensor technical sheets, and assembly instructions will be written for each development and shared as open-source hardware.
- Prototype the designed systems: manufacturing or 3D printing of the parts, order of the standard elements, mounting of the components, integration of electronic components.
- Integrate the proposed solutions on the existing platform and validate the obtained performances, initially in the laboratory and, when possible, in more ecological conditions with users involved.
- Activities related to the selection, sizing, and integration of mechatronic components -such as actuators, sensors, or electronic boards - are among the possible missions.
- Discuss the results and potential improvements with the different partners.

Also, the hired person will be involved in:

- Technology watch;
- Technical reporting and documentation;
- Technical meetings with partners;
- Experimental robotics activities.

Compétences

The recruited person would ideally own a Master's degree (M2 / M.Sc.) in Mechanical Engineering or in Mechatronics, with a solid background in design and prototyping/manufacturing. Candidates with a bachelor's degree (L3 / DUT / BUT) can also apply provided that they have a few years of experience working as a technician in a designoffice or about similar design problems.

Technical skills and knowledge:

- Mechanical/Mechatronic design
- Mechanical modeling and sizing
- Manufacturing and prototyping
- Sensor/Actuator integration
- Technical drawing and dimensional specification

Required soft skills:

- Rigour and intellectual honesty
- Curiosity and desire to learn
- Practical mindset and ability to develop robust and reliable solutions
- Autonomy and organizational skills
- Team spirit and ability to report progress

Avantages

- Subsidized meals
- Partial reimbursement of public transport costs
- Leave: 7 weeks of annual leave + 10 extra days off due to RTT (statutory reduction in working hours) + possibility of exceptional leave (sick children, moving home, etc.)
- Possibility of partial teleworking and flexible organization of working hours
- Professional equipment available (videoconferencing, loan of computer equipment, etc.)
- Social, cultural and sports events and activities
- Access to vocational training
- Social security coverage

Rémunération

Depending on your qualifications and professional experiences : from 2692 € to 3404 €gross / month