The graduate school within WASP is dedicated to
provide the skills needed to analyze, develop, and contribute to the
interdisciplinary area of autonomous systems and software. The
curriculum provides the foundations, perspectives, and state-of-the-art
knowledge in the different disciplines taught by leading researchers in
the field. Through an ambitious program with research visits, partner
universities, and visiting lecturers, the graduate school actively
supports forming a strong multi-disciplinary and international
professional network between PhD-students, researchers and industry.
The graduate school provides added value on top of the existing PhD
programs at the partner universities, providing unique opportunities
for students who are dedicated to achieving international research
excellence with industrial relevance.
Starting October 30, 2015 WASP recruited up to 26 graduate
positions at the five partner universities: Linköping University, Lund
University, Chalmers, KTH, and Umeå University.
The six PhD student positions at Chalmers are presented briefly
below. For general questions concerning WASP and its graduate school
please contact the Director of WASP Graduate School Fredrik Heintz (
fredrik.heintz@liu.se). For general questions concerning WASP at Chalmers please contact Prof
David Sands.
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Data-Driven Continuous Evolution of Autonomous Systems
The WASP project Software Engineering for Smart Systems, includes
collaboration between Chalmers and Lund University. Autonomous systems
use data about their behaviour for their operations. However, future
systems will not be static, but instead employ continuous deployment to
constantly improve their behaviour. There currently are no
architectures, data analytics techniques, methods and tools to build
autonomous systems in a continuously evolving fashion. This project is
concerned with studying this challenge and developing solutions to
address this.
For more information please contact Professor Jan Bosch via email: jan.bosch@chalmers.se or phone +46 733 664705.
Software Engineering for Smart Systems
In the WASP project Software Engineering for Smart Systems,
Chalmers and Lund University collaborate on data-driven methods and
tools for continuously evolving the functionality and performance of
smart systems. The main goal of the PhD project is to develop methods
and tools to manage the evolution of autonomous, smart and self-adaptive
systems. Such systems are requested to operate in environments that are
increasingly changing from static, closed and controllable to dynamic,
open, and uncontrollable. For instance this is the case of Cyber
Physical Systems, Systems-of-Systems, and Internet of Things. The
behavior of such systems is jointly determined by their internal
structure, by the behaviour of the constituents of the system, and by
the inputs received from both environment and end-users. The research
will be conducted in close collaboration with industry.
For more information please contact
Ass. Prof Patrizio Pelliccione via email:
patrizio@chalmers.se or phone +46 31-772 1050.
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI): Rich and natural interaction
The
WASP project Interaction and Communication with Autonomous Agents in
Sensor-Rich Environments, is a collaboration between Chalmers, Linköping
University, and Lund University. The intended research will be
conducted in the field of smart and natural interaction with high
dimensional data. From a human interaction perspective, offering user
interfaces to control and benefit from digital cognitive companions is a
novel and challenging task. In particular, the investigation will
regard the shift from desktop humansintheloop communication, where
basic feedback is provided mostly in real-time for low-level control, to
humansontheloop applications, where tasks are achieved by massive
remote autonomous systems (e.g., robots, physics-based simulations,
etc.) without significant human intervention.
For more information please contact Professor Morten Fjeld via email:
fjeld@chalmers.se or phone +46 31-772 1027.
Department of Electrical Engineering
Integrated Verification and Optimization
The WASP project Perception, Learning
and Verification, includes collaboration between Chalmers, KTH, Lund
University, and Linköping University.
The correctness of complex
autonomous systems is crucial. Therefore, the main goal of this PhD
project is to further develop recent formal verification techniques,
which have shown promising results for complex systems. The focus is on
correct-by-design control synthesis with respect to complex
specifications, and adaptability (learning) based on changes in
decisions and system behavior. Optimality in terms of for instance
performance, cost and energy is also crucial. To get a holistic view,
correctness and optimality need to be further related. Hence, the goal
of this project is also to obtain a unified framework that guarantees
both optimal and correct behavior of autonomous system implementations.
For more
information please contact Prof Bengt Lennartson via
email: bengt.lennartson@chalmers.se or phone +46 31 772 3722, or Associate Prof Laura
Kovacs via email: laura.kovacs@chalmers.se or phone +46 31 772 1696.
Control of Autonomous Vehicles in Complex Traffic with Safety Constraints
The
WASP project Automated Transport Systems, includes collaboration
between Chalmers, KTH, Lund University, and Linköping
University. Automated transport systems must be safe and efficient.
Therefore, the goal for this PhD project is to develop control
algorithms for safe and energy efficient path planning and decision
taking in autonomous driving. This will be done with the use of
model-based control techniques that incorporate predictive information.
This is, typically, done with model predictive controllers (MPCs)
operating in real-time, which in most cases entails a tradeoff between
computational demands and optimality. The project will focus on
addressing this tradeoff by looking beyond the standard MPC techniques
of linearization. Techniques, such as convex relaxations, time-to-space
transformations, variable changes, model abstractions, approximations
and bi-level optimization will be of main interest. The project will
heavily rely on applied non-linear programming and direct and indirect
optimal control.
Communication and Positioning for Automated Transport
The
WASP project Automated Transport Systems, includes collaboration
between Chalmers, KTH, Lund University, and Linköping University.
Automated transportation systems can benefit greatly from explicit
communication between vehicles, for perception, coordination, and
decision support. Communication between vehicles using large bandwidths
and large antenna arrays can provide fast and reliable data exchange,
and at the same time enable accurate and low-cost position and
orientation estimation. Our goal in this project is the co-design of
the communication and positioning methods, tailored to the control
requirements of automated transport.
For more information please contact
Associate Prof Henk Wymeersch via email
henkw@chalmers.se or phone +46 31 772 1765.