The Soft Robotics Lab within the Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems at ETH Zurich is inviting applications for open doctoral positions. Our lab's goal is to build, model, and control robots in a fundamentally different way, so that they become more flexible, dexterous, capable, and adapt better to their environment. We work along four directions: soft and musculoskeletal robotics, biohybrid living systems, dexterous manipulation and learning, and simulation for embodied AI. We are looking for exceptional researchers in any of them.
We do not hire against a narrow project description. We hire people who will define their own. Tell us which of our directions you want to push, and why you are the person to push it.
Today's robots are mostly rigid, fragile, and a world apart from the agility and resilience of biological bodies. Our bet is that the next generation of robots will be soft, musculoskeletal, and in part alive. They will be built to make contact with the real world rather than to avoid it. We pursue this across four directions, and a strong candidate will find a home in one of them and borrow from the others.
Soft and musculoskeletal robotics. We build bodies from compliant structures, bones, joints, and tendon-like actuation. Our electrohydraulic musculoskeletal leg jumps, moves fast, and adapts to terrain at roughly 1.2% of the energy a motor-driven leg needs (Nature Communications, 2024). Our low-voltage HASEL actuators run near 1100 V, are safe to touch, and work untethered and underwater (Science Advances, 2024). We recently extended these muscles to full antagonistic motion ranges (ICRA 2025) and to a sensorless, inherently compliant anthropomorphic hand driven entirely by electrohydraulic actuation (IROS 2026).
Biohybrid living systems. We grow engineered muscle and use it to actuate machines. We bioed multicellular muscle-tendon units that transmit force along a real musculoskeletal path (Science Advances, 2025), embedded sensors directly into muscle for closed-loop control of proprioceptive biohybrid robots (Advanced Intelligent Systems, 2025), and established functional volumetric bioing with xolography (Advanced Materials, 2026). Co-optimized volumetric muscle designs for large dynamic deformations are in press at Nature Communications (Balciunaite et al., 2026). The same fabrication line reaches clinical work: with University Hospital Zurich we ed implantable reinforced cardiac tissue patches (Advanced Materials, 2025).
Dexterous manipulation and learning. We build hands and the policies that run them. One of our initial hand designs is now commercialized through our spin-off Mimic Robotics. ORCA is our open-source, reliable, and cost-effective anthropomorphic hand for uninterrupted dexterous task learning (IROS 2025). On top of that hardware we work on cross-embodiment skill transfer through latent action diffusion (ICRA 2026) and on sample-efficient policy fine-tuning directly on the real robot. We also build controllable dexterous world models, high-resolution sensorized skin (ICRA 2024), and a benchmark of dexterity for anthropomorphic hands.
Simulation, fabrication, and embodied AI. Building these robots requires tools that did not exist. Vision-Controlled Jetting s rigid skeletons, soft tissue, tendons, and sensors in one pass, including a full musculoskeletal hand and forearm (Nature, 2023). We close the sim-to-real gap with learned residual physics (RA-L, 2024, Best Paper Award), and we released SORS, a modular high-fidelity soft-robot simulator, at RoboSoft 2026.
Underwater and aerial systems run through all of this, from SoFi and tendon-driven swimmer digital twins to our open-source soft aerial manipulation platform (CoRL 2024).
In line with our values, ETH Zurich encourages an inclusive culture. We promote equality of opportunity, value diversity and nurture a working and learning environment in which the rights and dignity of all our staff and students are respected. Visit our Equal Opportunities and Diversity website to find out how we ensure a fair and open environment that allows everyone to grow and flourish. Sustainability is a core value for us – we are consistently working towards a climate-neutral future.
We look forward to receiving your online application with the following documents as a single merged PDF document, titled with your last name and initials as well as the application date (for example, 20230701_DoeJane_application) in the following order:
- Cover letter with a description of your research achievements and research interests, naming the research direction you want to pursue with us
- Detailed CV
- Transcripts of all degrees (English)
- Names and contact information of at least three references
- Representative published research work (e.g., papers and thesis)
Further information about our group can be found on our website. Questions regarding the position should be directed to Federica Poltronieri, [email protected] (no applications).
Please note that we exclusively accept applications submitted through our online application portal. Applications via email or postal services will not be considered.
The application deadline is on a rolling basis, we have several Doctoral Positions to fill in the next months. Start date by agreement, but not later than mid next year.
