PhD: Safe, Long-Horizon Robotic Planning & Decision-Making

Delft University of Technology (TU Delft); Delft; On-site; EUR 34,000 - 43,000; Full time

Job summary

Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) invites applications for a PhD position within the OPERA consortium to advance general-purpose AI for robotics. You will develop planning and decision-making methods that enable safe, long-horizon robot behavior in uncertain environments. The PhD is a 4-year appointment in the Cognitive Robotics Department, supervised by Prof.

Robert Babuška and Dr. Laura Ferranti, with collaboration across Europe.

Qualifications

• MSc degree in Systems and Control, Robotics, Applied Mathematics, or a closely related field.
• Strong interest in safe planning and decision-making for robots, at the intersection of planning, control, and learning.
• Rigorous, theoretically grounded research, combined with an eagerness to validate ideas in simulation and on real robots.
• Strong analytical and mathematical skills, in particular in optimization, probability and statistics, and dynamical systems.
• Excellent communication skills and proficiency in English (written and verbal), as required for academic publication and international collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Develop planning and decision-making methods that let robots act safely and reliably over long time horizons when knowledge of environment and people is incomplete.
• Formulate the methods and analyze their guarantees and failure modes.
• Collaborate with OPERA partners across Europe on simulation, perception, and the OPERA open-source toolbox.
• Work within the Cognitive Robotics Department at TU Delft under supervision of Prof. Robert Babuška and Dr. Laura Ferranti.

Skills

Control theory

Optimization

Motion planning

English proficiency

Education

MSc in Systems and Control, Robotics, Applied Mathematics, or closely related field

Job description

Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) invites applications for a PhD position within the OPERA consortium to advance general-purpose AI for robotics. You will develop planning and decision-making methods that enable safe, long-horizon robot behavior in uncertain environments. The PhD is a 4-year appointment in the Cognitive Robotics Department, supervised by Prof.

Robert Babuška and Dr. Laura Ferranti, with collaboration across Europe.