Researchers Post Offerings for GMD Japan Research Laboratory

Tue Sep 4 22:47:06 EDT 2001

Research Positions - Announcement

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            Research Positions in

            Autonomous Robotics in Open and Dynamic Environments
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Seven new research positions (including post-doctoral positions) are open at
GMD-Japan Research Laboratory, Kitakyushu, Japan and will be filled at the
earliest convenience. The laboratory (planned to be a team of eight
scientists and two support staff) is based on long-term cooperations with
the Japanese research community and the (local) companies and organizations.
It focuses on robotics in two main research fields, namely autonomous
inspection of sewer pipes and soccer-playing robot teams, as known from the
RoboCup competitions.

Investigated questions are:

    - How to self-localize and move in many DoF without global correlation?
    - Interpretation / integration / abstraction / compression of complex
sensor signals?
    - How to build models based upon sensor-motor coordination for
(partially) unknown environments?
    - How to predict sensor-actuator correlations and generate motor signals
appropriately?
    - How to coordinate multiple loosely coupled robots?

Autonomous mobile robotics for sewer inspection and soccer-playing are
regarded as one of the most promising experimental and application
environment in this context. Real dynamic environments and real autonomy
(which is required in these setups), settle these questions in concrete
environments. The overall goal is of course not only implementing prototype
systems, but to get a better understanding of autonomy, and situatedness.
Modeling, adaptation, clustering, prediction, communication, or - from the
perspective of robotics - spatial and behavioral modeling, localization,
navigation, and exploration are cross-topics addressed in most questions. It
is also very important to connect this with possible applications to be
explored with (local) companies, like sewer operational units or edutainment
robotics manufacturers.

Techniques to be employed and developed include dynamical systems,
connectionist approaches, behavior-based techniques, rule based systems, and
systems theory. Experiments are based on physical robots. Thus the
discussion of experimental setups and particularly the meaning of embodiment
and situatedness are natural topics.

GMD-JRL is an independent research unit embedded and located at the newly
opened Science and Research Park (run by the Kitakyushu Foundation for the
Advancement of Industry, Science and Technology FAIS
http://www.city.kitakyushu.jp). Kitakyushu is located at the coast line of
the Sea of Japan on Kyushu Island. It is as far away from Tokyo as from
Shanghai and a traditional harbour gate to south-east Asia. In addition,
there are close connections to the Fraunhofer Institute of Autonomous
Intelligent Systems (FhI AIS, http://www.fraunhofer.ais.gmd.de/ ) headed by
Prof. Dr. Thomas Christaller in Sankt Augustin, Germany. The technical
environment is up-to-date and the laboratory itself is located in four
modern office rooms on the campus of the Science and Research Park, which
can be reached by a 30 minutes ride from central Kitakyushu.

If the above challenges arise your interest, please proceed to our
expectations regarding the ideal candidate:
  - Master/Diploma or Ph.D. / doctoral degree in computer sciences,
electrical or mechanical engineering, physics, mathematics, biology,

or related disciplines:
    - Experiences in experimenting with autonomous systems.
    - Theoretical foundations in mathematics, control theory, connectionism,
dynamical systems, or systems theory.
    - Interest in joining an international team of highly motivated
researchers.

Furthermore it is expected that the candidate engages her/himself to bring
in her/his own perspective to blend it with the whole group. There are many
opportunities for writing a Ph.D. thesis.

Salary starts at 7.8 Mill. Yen per year depending on experience and
graduation.

For any further information, and applications (including addresses of
referees, two recent publications, and a letter of interest) please
contact:

Prof. Dr. Thomas Christaller, Director of GMD-Japan Research Laboratory
Secretary: Yukako Matsudaira mailto:matsudaira at gmd.gr.jp
Tel: +81-93-695-3085
Fax: +81-93-695-3525
URL: http://www.gmd.de/JRL/

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Visit the AiS Colloquium on Autonomy every two weeks on Wednesday:
http://www.ais.fraunhofer.de/kolloquium/index.html
Visit the European Conference on Artificial Life at Prague
http://www.cs.cas.cz/ecal2001
Visit the web portal on Edutainment Robotics
http://www.edutainment-robotics.org
Visit the RoboFesta in Japan http://www.robofesta.net
Notice the Interdisciplinary College at G=FCnne http://www.tzi.de/ik2002
_______________________________________________________
Prof. Dr. rer.nat. Thomas Christaller
mailto:thomas.christaller at ais.fraunhofer.de
    http://www.ais.fraunhofer.de/people/Thomas.Christaller/
    Fraunhofer Institute for Autonomous intelligent Systems - AiS
    http://www.ais.fraunhofer.de/
    Schloss Birlinghoven
    D-53754 Sankt Augustin
   Phone: +49-2241-14-2678, Fax +49-2241-14-2384
   Secretary: mailto:Renate.Henkeler at ais.fraunhofer.de,

mailto:Eva.Sommer at ais.fraunhofer.de
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