PhD student position in safe roadtrains for efficient transport (SERET)

Information regarding the division and the research group
The division of Vehicle engineering and autonomous systems (VEAS) focuses on engineering of systems in the application areas of vehicles and robots. Our strengths are the knowledge of finding solutions to authentic problems, the combination of simulations with real-life testing, as well as stochastic optimization methods and their applications.

The Adaptive systems research group is focused on various aspects of applied artificial intelligence and their applications in robots, autonomous agents, and vehicles. The group has strong ties to the Swedish automotive industry, and participates in national and international projects. We also teach courses in the Complex adaptive systems (CAS) master programme at Chalmers University of Technology. 

Safe roadtrains for efficient transports - project description
The PhD project is part of a platooning research project managed by AB Volvo. The overall goal of the project is to develop safe road trains (i.e. a group of vehicles, in this case heavy-duty trucks, driving in a formation, and where some of the vehicles are controlled autonomously, without driver intervention), in order to improve safety, reduce fuel consumption, and reduce emissions. 

The PhD student will mainly be working with longitudinal control of a road train, developing algorithms for safe, reliable, and fuel-efficient operation of such configurations. The work will be inspired by research on self-organizing systems in general and swarm robotics in particular and, in addition to the stability of the road train, various issues regarding data exchange (between the vehicles in the road train) will also be considered. The work will be conducted in close cooperation with the Volvo development team. The PhD student will be a member of the research team driving the development beyond the current research frontiers and implementing the results in a real truck environment, thus considering all practical aspects of the problem.  

Project participants



• Chalmers University of Technology (the Adaptive systems group at the VEAS division) 

• AB Volvo (Sweden)

• Kapsch AB (Sweden)

Major responsibilities
The PhD student will be expected to:

- Carry out research activities in the project, including writing publications and theses
- Attending project meetings and conferences
- Participate in practical experiments at different locations
- Spend about 50% of the working week at Chalmers, and 50% at the Volvo office 
- Taking courses corresponding to at least 67.5 credits.
- Teaching (up to 20% of total work time)

The PhD student's main responsibility is to pursue his or her own doctoral studies. The student is expected to develop his or her own scientific concepts and communicate the results of the research verbally and in writing, both in Swedish and in English. The position generally also includes teaching (typically in one of the master programmes, e.g. Complex adaptive systems).

Position summary
Host institution: Chalmers University of Technology 
Objectives: To develop algorithms for safe, efficient, and reliable operation of roadtrains involving several heavy-duty trucks.
Supervisor name: Prof. Mattias Wahde (mattias.wahde@chalmers.se)
Full-time temporary employment. The position is limited to a maximum of five years.

Qualifications
Requirements and eligibility criteria: 

To qualify as a PhD student, the applicant must have a master's level degree corresponding to at least 240 higher education credits in a relevant field. 
The applicants must also be able to express themselves in English at a high level, both verbally and in writing. If Swedish is not an applicant's native language, he or she should nevertheless be able to teach in Swedish after two years. Chalmers offers Swedish courses.

The applicant should be highly motivated to carry out independent research work. In addition, good programming skills, particularly in C# .NET, are desirable, but not an absolute requirement. Note, however, that the research work will include a large amount of computer programming.
Chalmers is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants of any nationality are welcome to apply.

Application deadline: 2014-05-15

For questions, please contact:
Professor Mattias Wahde
Division of Applied Mechanics
E-mail: mattias.wahde@chalmers.se
Phone: +46 31 772 3727




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