The PhD position is part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action ‟European Training Network for InduStry Digital Transformation across Innovation Ecosystems” (EINST4INE), coordinated by RMIT Europe. EINST4INE project aims to develop new concepts, approaches and methods in the area of digital transformation and brings together a unique group of world-leading experts in the areas of Open Innovation, Industry 4.0, digital transformation and innovation ecosystems. EINST4INE six academic beneficiaries will recruit altogether 15 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) working in the domain of industrial digital transformation who will meet regularly via a coordinated exchange programme organised across the international network, comprising secondments, visits, training events, workshops, and summer schools. The successful candidate will be based at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (Pisa, Italy) and enrolled in a PhD programme in this institution. For more information about EINST4INE project, visit our website: https://www.einst4ine.eu/

PhD Project Description

Robots are nowadays integrating capabilities which were not available in the recent past. The major change is the ability to have the robot share the workspace and tasks with humans, allowing to cooperate and act in society. A major subsystem of a social/collaborative robot is the human-machine interface, which may be grounded on different sensory modalities to exchange information. State of the art interfaces typically are speech-based, touch-based, or vision-based or combinations of these to allow interpreting, imitating or complementing the gestures of the user. The research will explore the interaction and complementarities between automation (including social/collaborative robots) and human machine cooperation. This ESR project will explore and pilot novel approaches to digitise human work and their effects on individual and organisational performance.