PhD fellowship/scholarship, Distributed coordination of autonomous swarms for anomaly detection

Applicants are invited for a PhD fellowship/scholarship at Graduate School of Technical Sciences, Aarhus University, Denmark, within the Electrical and Computer Engineering programme. The position is available from 01 April 2025 or later. You can submit your application via the link under 'how to apply'.

Title:
Distributed coordination of autonomous swarms for anomaly detection

Research area and project description:
In this project, you will investigate the autonomous inspection of critical offshore/underwater infrastructure using swarms of Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs). You will explore visual SLAM for localisation and mapping with multiple UUVs. Swarms of UUVs are required to be coordinated to efficiently perform mapping and monitoring of infrastructure in the harsh environment. Furthermore, swarms of UUVs are required to identify anomalies while monitoring the infrastructure, to timely inform operators in case of such an anomaly occurs. We will design edge computing and distributed AI solutions to address the challenges in coordination and collaboration among UUVs due to limited bandwidth in underwater communication, ensuring individual UUVs to operate autonomously in a collaborative manner.

The PhD student will develop simulations potentially including environmental dynamics for initial exploration and testing and also collaborate with the company EIVA to implement and test potential solutions in real-world settings. The project is financed through the ADVISOR project funded by IFD through the ITEA 4 framework.

Project description: For technical reasons, you must upload a project description. Please simply copy the project description above and upload it as a PDF in the application.

Qualifications and specific competences:
Applicants to the position must have a relevant Master’s degree in the area of computer engineering, computer science, robotics, or similar. A background in autonomous systems and machine learning is required. Good understanding of deep learning techniques and neural networks is desired. Online decision-making approaches as well as coordination and control for autonomous systems are relevant areas of expertise for this position.

Previous experience with developing models for simulation tools is desired.

Place of employment and place of work:
The place of employment is Aarhus University, and the place of work is Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Finlandsgade 22, 8200 Aarhus N., Denmark.

Contacts:
Applicants seeking further information are invited to contact:

• Lukas Esterle, [email protected] (main supervisor)
• Qi Zhang, [email protected] (co-supervisor)

How to apply:
Please follow this link to submit your application.

Application deadline is 24 February 2025 at 23:59 CET

Preferred starting date is 01 April 2025.

For information about application requirements and mandatory attachments, please see our application guide.

Please note:

• Only documents received prior to the application deadline will be evaluated. Thus, documents sent after deadline will not be taken into account.
• The programme committee may request further information or invite the applicant to attend an interview.
• Shortlisting will be used, which means that the evaluation committee only will evaluate the most relevant applications.

Aarhus University’s ambition is to be an attractive and inspiring workplace for all and to foster a culture in which each individual has opportunities to thrive, achieve and develop. We view equality and diversity as assets, and we welcome all applicants. All interested candidates are encouraged to apply, regardless of their personal background. Salary and terms of employment are in accordance with applicable collective agreement.