Industrial PhD Positions in “Perception” for Autonomous Vehicles

At Autonomous Transport Solutions (ATS) Pre-Development & Research, Scania R&D, we pursue top-quality research and development of future cutting edge ATS concepts. We operate in agile and self-steered teams that work in close cooperation with the Volkswagen group, leading technology suppliers, and academic institutions, with the ambition to detect and evaluate upcoming technologies. Our culture is built based upon delivering added customer value through research and practical experiments that iteratively lead to concepts for industrialization.

Background

Vehicle autonomy has been heavily promoted as a means of improving transportation safety on the roadway. This goal, however, requires the vehicle to possess a high level of scene perception and situational awareness — that is, the ability to correctly perceive and understand the surrounding environment, the other road users and how the scene evolves over time.

One of the reasons why human drivers can safely navigate in complex environments is that they augment their sensing capabilities and anticipate the need to react to potential hazards. As an example, a driver slows down because she foresees the risk of collisions that arises due to the presence of vulnerable road users, occlusions in the traffic scene, or unfavourable weather conditions.

Despite rapid research and innovation in scene perception for autonomous driving, dealing with complex traffic scenes and scalability for the production of L4-L5 capable autonomous vehicles is still challenging.  At the current time, there is no established theoretical and technological framework that enables the same capability for self-driving vehicles – specifically, when dealing with occluded traffic
participants.

Project Description

You will be developing novel theoretical concepts and evaluate these in practice on an experimental testbed. The goal of the project is to investigate and develop a new scene perception module that (1) incorporates multi-sensor information to create a scene representation including possible occlusions; (2) fuses the output of multiple developed algorithms to enhance the robustness of scene perception in different traffic scenarios; (3) integrates scene metadata for context-aware detection, classification and prediction of occluded road users; (4) operates under real-time conditions, which is validated through simulation and real data. The project target is to detect, classify, and track all road participants that share the road network with the ego vehicle.

To achieve these objectives, the industrial PhD students will pursue a multi-disciplinary research in the areas of sensor fusion, environment perception, behavioural learning, prediction, machine learning, artificial intelligence and probabilistic modelling.

This research project will be conducted in an agile multi-cultural research team within R&D. The team is responsible for concept evaluation and software development of environment perception algorithms for autonomous driving.

The results of this research project will be implemented in Scania’s development environment for autonomous driving and they will be experimentally evaluated in operating prototype vehicles (trucks and buses) equipped with sensors and a platform setup for autonomous driving.

Your profile

To apply you should have a master of engineering degree (or equivalent) in applied mathematics, computer science, machine learning, robotics, engineering physics, electrical engineering or in a related technical science or engineering subject

The candidate is expected to have a solid mathematical knowledge and demonstrable programming skills. We look for a candidate who is self-motivated, engaged, that can communicate in a pedagogic way to the team and the rest of the organisation.

Extra meritorious are:


• Knowledge and experience within software languages such as C++ and/or MATLAB/Simulink and/or Python along with a keen interest in programming.
• If you are fluent in English both in writing and in speech.

This research will be conducted in collaboration with Vinnova, FFI and the Robotics, Perception and Learning department at KTH – The Royal Institute of Technology, in Stockholm. Start date: 01st Jan 2021. Number of PhDs: 2

Further Information

Does this sound like an exciting challenge? We are looking forward to receiving your application! Do not hesitate to contact Naveenraj Vijayan (Manager) +46 (0) 855 353 208 to know more.

Application

Your application should include a CV, cover letter and copies of any certificates. Apply via our website www.scania.com/jobs by 2020-11-22 at the latest. Job Id 20202596. Applications will be reviewed and interviews held continuously during the recruitment process.