Robots, AI and Us: Doctoral Training in Autonomous Systems, AI and Human-Centred Robotics

The Centre for Automation and Robotics (CAR), a joint research centre of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), brings together more than 100 researchers working across robotics, artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, control, perception and human-centred technologies.

Our research is organised around the scientific vision “Robots, AI and Us”, which addresses a fundamental challenge: how autonomous systems, AI and humans can coexist, collaborate and interact safely, effectively and sustainably in real-world environments.

CAR offers expertise in:

• Autonomous systems and decision-making architectures

• Artificial intelligence for robotics

• Multi-robot and distributed systems

• Computer vision and perception

• Human–robot interaction and assistive robotics

• Connected and automated mobility

• Intelligent control and cyber-physical systems

• Field robotics for agriculture, infrastructure and environmental applications

A distinctive asset of CAR is FUSE (Unified Shared Experimental Facility), a large-scale experimental environment where robots, AI systems and humans can be studied and validated in realistic scenarios including smart homes, mobility infrastructures, agricultural environments and collaborative human–robot settings.

We are interested in building or joining ambitious MSCA Doctoral Networks that combine excellent science, interdisciplinary training and real-world experimentation. We welcome collaborations with academic institutions, research centres, industry and non-academic partners interested in doctoral training in robotics, AI and autonomous systems.

CAR can contribute as beneficiary, work package leader or scientific coordinator, offering doctoral supervision, advanced training activities, experimental infrastructures and strong experience in European collaborative projects.