RobotX PhD Fellowship 2027

You define your doctoral project together with your supervisor during your first months.

RobotX, the Center for Robotics at ETH Zurich, is looking for outstanding doctoral students who want to build robots that work in the real world. With the RobotX PhD Fellowship 2027, you apply once and are considered by several RobotX research groups across ETH Zurich. You choose up to three professors you would like to work with, and they review your application.

The research groups of RobotX cover a broad spectrum of robotics, including but not limited to:

Soft and Musculoskeletal Robotics: bioinspired robots built from compliant materials, artificial muscles, and tendons, for safe and adaptive interaction with an unstructured world.

Robotic Locomotion and Manipulation: legged robots, robot arms, and hands that move and act reliably in complex terrain and contact-rich tasks.

Biohybrid Robots: robots built from living cells, engineered tissue, and synthetic materials, actuated by muscle and powered by chemical energy.

Perception and Computer Vision: 3D reconstruction, object recognition, and scene understanding that give robots reliable perception of their surroundings.

Human-Robot Interaction: sensory-motor interaction between humans and machines for assistive, rehabilitative, and cooperative tasks.

Computational Design and Fabrication: simulation, optimization, and learned surrogate models to design and fabricate efficient, bioinspired robots.

Reinforcement Learning and Machine Learning: data-driven methods that let robots learn new skills and adapt to new tasks and environments.

Humanoid Robotics and Tactile Sensing for Manipulation: humanoid loco-manipulation, whole-body control, and tactile sensing that let robots reason across touch and vision to handle objects dexterously.

Motion Planning and Control: algorithms for navigation, control, and decision-making in dynamic environments.

Safety-Critical Robotic Systems: robots that perform reliably under uncertainty, in particular when they work alongside humans.

ETH Zurich is one of the world’s leading universities specialising in science and technology. We are renowned for our excellent education, cutting-edge fundamental research and direct transfer of new knowledge into society. Over 30,000 people from more than 120 countries find our university to be a place that promotes independent thinking and an environment that inspires excellence. Located in the heart of Europe, yet forging connections all over the world, we work together to develop solutions for the global challenges of today and tomorrow.

• A Master's degree in mechanical or electrical engineering, computer science, robotics, bioengineering, materials science, or a closely related field, completed by August 2027

• An excellent academic record in both your Bachelor's and Master's studies

• Demonstrated experience in one or more of the research areas above, ideally a project you carried from idea to a working result on real hardware

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, and the drive to do independent research

• Strong programming skills; experience with robotics software frameworks is a plus

• Excellent written and spoken English