PhD proposal Univ. Grenoble Alpes: Mission planning for a fleet of autonomous robots
Alexandre Albore
Dear all,
I am writing you to inform you about an open PhD position at the University of Grenoble Alpes, co-hosted by DTIS, ONERA in Toulouse, France.
Supervisors: Damien Pellier <damien....@imag.fr> and Alexandre Albore <aal...@onera.fr>.
PhD description (an extended description can be found at https://w3.onera.fr/formationparlarecherche/automated-planning-robotics-artificial-intelligence):
Complex underwater robotic missions require sophisticated and
automated fleet planning capabilities. This involves considering
the overall objective while optimizing the allocation of roles and
tasks to the available robotic systems. This optimization process
takes into account multiple objectives related to time, quality,
and quantity of resources mobilized, each with varying degrees of
importance.
To address this problem, the proposed PhD thesis aims to use AI
planning approaches, in particular hierarchical approaches (HTN),
enriched with numerical and temporal constraints. These approaches
allow the definition of complex environments and provide the
flexibility to describe mission planning problems at different
levels of granularity.
The primary objective of this thesis is to develop a hierarchical temporal planner capable of generating complex robotic missions. As our needs for expressivity evolve, the planner will adapt accordingly. The development of such a planner will significantly advance the state of the art, as there are currently very few planners that operate under this paradigm. In addition to evaluating the proposed planners, an industrial case study will assess the effectiveness of the approach and its integration into robotic platforms. This evaluation will utilize simulation tools and sea trials to ensure practical applicability.
Candidate Profile. The ideal candidate should have:
- A master’s degree (M2) in computer science with a successful research experience.
- Advanced programming skills (design and implementation), especially in Java.
- Strong academic background demonstrating the ability to bridge theory and practice.
- Proficiency in both spoken and written professional English.
- General knowledge in the field of artificial intelligence.
- Preferably be a citizen of the European Union (EU) due to the sensitive nature of the research conducted.
Best regards
Alex