I am recruiting multiple Postdoctoral Researchers and PhD Students to join ROMOTIVE —Robotic manipulation of deformable objects through integrated visuo-tactile exploration—, a newly funded research project focused on domestic and assistive home robotics.

ROMOTIVE is funded under the Starting Grant category of the FIS 3 call 2024–2025 (Fondo Italiano per la Scienza), one of the most prestigious research programs in Italy, aligned with the ERC Starting Grant model. The project is supported with €1.1M over 48 months.

Mission: Make general-purpose domestic robots a reality.

Research focus:
The project addresses the challenge of enabling domestic robots to perform human-like manipulation of deformable objects in complex and possibly unstructured home environments. The project combines active visuo-tactile perception, learning-based manipulation models, and robust, long-horizon action planning, with a strong emphasis on non-prehensile manipulation under uncertainty.

Open technical profiles:
Perception-focused

• Active perception for manipulation
• Visuo-tactile perception and multisensorial fusion
• Tactile sensing for manipulation
• Learning physics-aware manipulation models
• Learning-based manipulation model design, training, and deployment
• Embodied and self-supervised learning from interaction data

Planning-focused

• Long-horizon task and action planning under uncertainty
• Robust and sensitivity-aware control
• Non-prehensile and deformable object manipulation
• Simulation and sim-to-real transfer
• Vision–Language–Action (VLA) deployment for manipulation
• Integration of planning with learned manipulation models

Preferred background:
Need-to-have

• PhD in robotics, machine learning, or a related field (for Postdocs only)
• Strong expertise in robotics, manipulation, robot vision, motion planning, or embodied AI
• Solid hands-on work experience with real robots
• Strong programming skills (Python/C++)
• Familiarity with Linux and ROS/ROS2 environment

Nice-to-have

• Publications in top venues (RSS, NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CoRL, ICRA, IROS, TRO)
• Experience with deformable object grasping and manipulation
• Humanoid motion and whole-body control
• Visual perception, force and tactile sensing
• Machine learning for robotics

Starting date:

Start date is flexible, positions will remain open until suitable candidates are identified.

What we offer:

A well-funded, long-term project, access to state-of-the-art robotic platforms (legged robots, humanoid robots, industrial robots, drones, etc.) and sensing technologies.

You will work at the PRISMA Lab of the University of Naples Federico II, in a collaborative, interdisciplinary team that promotes a supportive and ambitious research culture, with strong opportunities for high-impact publications and the development of both technical and professional skills.

How to apply:

Please send a detailed CV including a publication list, a brief statement of research interests and motivation letter (indicating the preferred technical profile), degree certificates and academic transcripts (for PhD only), and reference contacts to: mario.selvaggio@unina.it.

The subject line should be: [Romotive: Postdoc] or [Romotive: PhD] (choose the one that relates to you).