Undergraduate and/or Master's thesis (m/f/x)-Predicting Steering Effort for Rover Motion Planning

The Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics develops robots that enable people to interact with the environment more efficiently, effectively and safely. The robots are designed to work in environments that are inaccessible or dangerous for humans, but also to support and relieve people at work and in everyday life.

What to expect
The Autonomy and Remote Programming department develops control systems for complex movements on multi-armed robots with many degrees of freedom. The tasks range from simple motion sequences to autonomous planning of complex manipulation tasks. Research is also being conducted into the control of robots on flexible, high-performance computing platforms under realtime conditions.

Your tasks
* Establishing a pipeline to gather, extract, and process the relevant actuator and motion signals from the rover
* Deriving and evaluating a classical, kinematics-based cost as a baseline proxy for steering effort
* Systematically characterizing where and why this simple proxy holds or breaks down across terrain and motion conditions
* Developing and evaluating stronger, terrain-aware models that estimate steering effort for the rover's full motion through a mapped environment.
* Assessing how these effort estimates can inform motion planning, and summarizing recommendations for rover navigation

Your profil
* currently enrolled in a Master's or Bachelor's degree in robotics, computer science, or a related field
* knowledge of fundamental concepts in autonomous systems / robotics (planning, control, state-estimation, mapping)
* familiarity with machine learning methods and a willingness to apply them to a real robotics problem
* proficiency in Python and/or C++, basics of linux and git
* professional working proficiency in English and/or German
* experience with mobile robotics / ROS
Remuneration is based on qualifications and pay band, up to pay band 5 of the TVöD.

We look forward to getting to know you!

If you have any questions about this position (Vacancy-ID 5903) please contact:

Prof. Dr. Alin Olimpiu Albu-Schäffer
Tel.: +49 8153 28 3689