PhD Position in Physical AI for Adaptive Robot Manipulation

Join us in pioneering the next frontier of Physical AI!

The Adaptive & Agentic AI (A3) Lab at Aarhus University, in close partnership with Soft Robotics group at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU), is seeking an ambitious, fully funded PhD candidate (3 years, starting March 1, 2027).
Backed by a prestigious grant from the Independent Research Fund Denmark (DFF), our newly launched STORM project tackles one of robotics' greatest challenges: giving machines a true sense of touch. You will push the boundaries of Vision-Language-Action (VLA) and World-Action models—teaching robots to anticipate physical interactions, learn from rich tactile feedback, recognize failures, and safely adapt on the fly. Rather than staying purely in simulation, you will bring cutting-edge foundation models, multimodal learning, and test-time adaptation to life on real robots manipulating fragile, unpredictable objects.

What You Bring:
A Master’s degree in Computer Science, AI, Robotics, or a related field.
Strong foundations in machine learning, deep learning, and computer vision, paired with top-tier Python/PyTorch skills.
Hands-on research experience in robot learning, foundation/world models, multimodal learning, or online adaptation (highly desirable).
A track record of publications at premier AI/robotics venues and real-world hardware experience (strong advantage).

What We Offer & How to Apply:
You will thrive in a dynamic, international research environment connected to the ELLIS community, complete with opportunities for global collaboration—including a potential research visit to KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

Location: Aarhus University, Denmark
Start Date: March 1, 2027
Application Deadline: January 4, 2027
Apply Here: https://lnkd.in/egS9JY_h (Please submit applications via the official portal only; applications sent by email will not be considered).