Connectionists: PhD position on active sensing, POMDPs

[Olivier Buffet]

PhD position on active sensing, POMDPs
at INRIA (Nancy, France):

  Title:
Optimal Control of Active Sensors

  Summary:
One of the main objectives of artificial intelligence is to make
artificial agents capable of suggesting optimal decisions to a human -
or even to act in completely autonomous manner – by reasoning about the
effects of the sequence of actions it envisions. The POMDP formalism
[1,2] (Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes) allows in
particular to model settings where an agent is in an environment whose
evolution is uncertain, and whose perception is limited.

This PhD position will focus more precisely on information gathering
problems involving active sensors [3], the decisions being made so as to
acquire observations bringing the most complementary pieces of
information about a given situation. The candidate will first look for
algorithms which are efficient despite the large size of the search
space (size linked to the uncertainty inherent to the problem), then he
will extend these approaches to the joint use of multiple -more or less
independent- active sensors.

This work will be applied -in the context of an industrial project- to
the low cost identification of defaults in aeronautics parts made of
composite materials by selecting the observations to perform (which
sensor, where, at which resolution). But case studies will also cover
classical problems such as searching for a mobile intruder in a complex
environment.

  Bibliographic references:
[1] D.P. Bertsekas and J.N. Tsitsiklis. Neurodynamic Programming. Athena
Scientific, 1996.
[2] Kevin Murphy. A Survey of POMDP Solution Techniques. Technical
report, Department of Computer Science, University of California, 2000.
[3] Matthijs T. J. Spaan. Cooperative Active Perception using POMDPs. In
Proceedings of the AAAI 2008 Workshop on Advancements in POMDP Solvers,
July 2008.


  Required skills and background:
Partially observable Markov devision processes (POMDP) are at the heart
of this PhD position. The candidate will have to be familiar with this
field or related fields (algorithmic, operations research,
probabilities). Software development will be conducted in Java or C++.

Applicants are required to hold a Master's degree in ComputerScience / 
Applied Maths (or an equivalent diploma).


  Contact (phone and e-mail) :
Vincent Thomas		03 54 95 85 08	vincent.thomas at loria.fr
François Charpillet	03 83 59 20 81	francois.charpillet at loria.fr	
Olivier Buffet		03 54 95 85 02	olivier.buffet at loria.fr


  APPLICATION PROCESS
To apply, please send the following documents
	to olivier.buffet at loria.fr
	before 31/10/2008:
- detailed CV
- motivation letter
- references (master's supervisor)
- master's thesis
- possibly recent transcripts of records



About INRIA PhD opportunities:
http://www.inria.fr/travailler/opportunites/doc.en.html