[robocup-worldwide] [jobs] Two PhD positions in Cooperative Aerial-Ground Robot Systems for Automated Inspection Applications at ISR/IST, Lisbon

[Pedro U Lima]

The Institute for Systems and Robotics (ISR <https://welcome.isr.tecnico.ulisboa.pt/>), a unit of the Laboratory of Robotics and Systems in Engineering and Science ( LARSyS <http://larsys.pt/>), located at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), U. Lisbon, Portugal, invites applications for two PhD students to contribute to its growing activities in the domain of Field robotics. The candidate will be part of a research group with expertise in unmanned ground vehicles and aerial robots and an excellent track-record of related research projects <http://welcome.isr.tecnico.ulisboa.pt/projects_cat/irsg/>.

The PhD positions will be part of the INTERREG ATLANTIC project DURABLE <https://www.durableproject.eu/>: “Maintenance Drones and Robots to Enhance Renewable Energy Systems in the Atlantic Area”. The overall goal of DURABLE is to accelerate the deployment of renewable energies through validation and demonstration of robotic technologies for operation and maintenance activities in wind and solar energy systems. A consortium of 13 European partners from 5 Atlantic countries is working together to meet that goal.


PhD position 1: Active Cooperative Perception for Aerial-Ground Robot Systems

This PhD topic is focused on the development of cooperative perception methods for a team of aerial and ground robots carrying different type of onboard sensors (e.g.: lidar, depth and RGB cameras) for the application of autonomous inspection of outdoor structures.  We aim at exploiting robot collaboration, through means of sharing sensory information and actively coordinating robot motions, to enhance the teams’ situational awareness and improve the inspection process, while considering the specific perception strengths and limitations of individual robots. 


PhD position 2: Cooperative Task Execution for a Team of Aerial and Ground Robots

This PhD topic consists of formulating and solving the coordination of cooperative task execution by a team of UGVs and UAVs as an optimization problem, e.g., maximizing the duration of the joint task and the task performance, constrained by the available onboard sensors (3D lasers range finders, color and depth cameras, GPS receiver and inertial sensors) and actuators (mobile rovers and manipulators), as well as vehicle characteristics (e.g., energy autonomy, speed). A case study in the DURABLE project will include ensuring coverage and inspection of a solar farm, for large time periods, by UAVs that will periodically land on dynamically placed UGVs to recharge batteries.

 
Candidates should have a master’s degree in Robotics, Electrical/Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related areas. The research tasks require a good mathematical background, knowledge of basic control and estimation theory and good programming skills. Previous experience to robot design and control is an advantage.

If you are interested in these positions, please send your CV and a statement of purpose until Nov 30 to Prof. Pedro Lima pedro.lima at tecnico.ulisboa.pt <mailto:pedro.lima at tecnico.ulisboa.pt> , Dr Meysam Basiri meysam.basiri at tecnico.ulisboa.pt <mailto:meysam.basiri at tecnico.ulisboa.pt>  or Dr. Alberto Vale avale at ipfn.tecnico.ulisboa.pt <mailto:avale at ipfn.tecnico.ulisboa.pt> 

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