PhD Studentship: Robotic Monitoring for Place Recognition and Change Detection in Dynamic Underwater Environments

This PhD position within the EU-funded BlueOcean Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network focuses on advancing robotic monitoring techniques for underwater environments. The project aims to address critical challenges in detecting gradual changes in seafloor dynamics, which are often obscured by sensor noise and navigation drift. The successful candidate will combine robotic localisation, high-resolution mapping, and machine learning to create robust methods for aligning and analysing evolving underwater scenes. The work will leverage existing datasets from the University of Southampton’s Smarty200 AUV, field campaigns, and controlled experiments in dedicated deep-water tanks. The candidate will also benefit from interdisciplinary training, access to leading European institutions, and secondments with industry partners like CNR (Italy) and Voyis Imaging (Canada).

• Develop advanced robotic localisation and high-resolution mapping methods for underwater environments.
• Design and implement machine learning algorithms for detecting subtle changes in underwater scenes under noise and uncertainty.
• Create probabilistic models to quantify and propagate uncertainty in large-scale underwater change analysis.
• Validate research methods using simulations, existing datasets from the Smarty200 AUV, and new field-collected data.
• Conduct controlled experiments in the Maritime Robotics and Instrumentation Laboratory’s deep-water tank.
• Collaborate with 13 PhD researchers across leading European institutions within the BlueOcean network.
• Undertake secondments with industry partners, including CNR (Italy) and Voyis Imaging (Canada).
• Present research findings at international conferences and publish in peer-reviewed journals.