Connectionists: Research Fellow in Connected Autonomous Vehicle Simulation for Safety Assurance

[Tony Pipe]

Research Fellow in Connected Autonomous Vehicle Simulation for Safety 
Assurance


Full Description of post at: 
https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/BSG701/research-fellow-in-connected-autonomous-vehicle-simulation-for-safety-assurance 


Location:             Bristol, UK
Salary:                 £33,199 to £39,609
Hours:                 Full Time
Contract Type:     Fixed-Term/Contract for 24 months
Closes:                19th June 2019
Job Ref:                R00131

Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL) is the most comprehensive academic 
centre for multi-disciplinary robotics research in the UK. It is a 
collaborative partnership between the University of the West of England 
(UWE Bristol) and the University of Bristol, and home to a vibrant 
community of over 250 academics, researchers and industry practitioners. 
Together, they are world leaders in current thinking on service 
robotics, intelligent autonomous systems and bio-engineering. The 
state-of-the-art facilities covers an area of over 3,500 sq. metres 
(over 37,000 sq. feet) and BRL is an internationally recognised Centre 
of Excellence in Robotics. The primary mission of BRL is to understand 
the science, engineering and social role of robotics and embedded 
intelligence. In particular, the key challenges surrounding adaptive 
robotics, namely: dealing with people and their unpredictability, 
unstructured and uncertain environments, and equipping robots for 
flexible roles. BRL is a unique collaboration that harnesses the 
collective strengths of its partners to spearhead Britain's efforts to 
be a world leader in modern advanced robotics.

This Innovate UK funded Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) project is 
motivated by the opportunity to gain significant socioeconomic benefit 
in the Public Service Vehicle sector by automation of a bus service. The 
prime objective of the project, therefore, is to evaluate a commercially 
operational extended pilot service involving buses that will be either 
partially or fully autonomously (with supervision) over a 10-mile route, 
taking passengers across the Forth Bridge near Edinburgh.

Bristol Robotics Laboratory researchers will make two main, safety 
related, contributions to the project. First, we will build on expertise 
developed in collaboration with researchers at the University of Bristol 
during previous Connected Autonomous Vehicle (CAV) projects, to develop 
a simulation of the route using state-of-the-art vehicle simulator 
software and hardware. Using this simulation, we can design scenarios 
that stretch the vehicle's sensor and/or control systems and, where it 
is important to do so, test human participants' reactions to selected 
scenarios. Clearly these situations can be much more easily varied in a 
known way so as to achieve more critical settings than those which can 
safely be tested in the real world. Second, we will carry out risk 
assessments that build towards safety cases for real-world experiments 
to be conducted using the bus, with critical findings from simulation 
guiding the nature and detail of the test environments and the 
experiments themselves. Thus, we will verify and validate the safety of 
the bus control system, as well as helping to evaluate its acceptability 
overall.

Although there will be significant interaction with those at BRL and 
others working on the CAV-Forth project, this position is focused 
predominantly on the first of the contributions outlined above, i.e., on 
developing and using the simulation platform to investigate and discover 
the, so called, 'corner cases' (the most safety-critical situations) 
that need to be tested in the real-world, and to carry out 
simulator-based tests with participants. Thus, we will guide the focus 
for, and maximise the benefits from, the expensive and risky real-world 
testing to be carried out prior to implementing the 10-mile pilot 
driving route. To achieve this, you will utilise the results of recent 
research, carried out in Bristol, on simulation-based verification and 
validation techniques for autonomous vehicles. You will focus, in 
collaboration with the CAV-Forth partners, on a variety of autonomy 
functions and use case scenarios.

This is a full time, fixed term contract for 24 months.

The interviews are planned for Friday 28th June 2019.

-- 
Tony Pipe
Professor of Robotics and Autonomous Systems
Deputy Director: Bristol Robotics Laboratory

Bristol Robotics Laboratory
T-Building
Frenchay Campus
Bristol UK BS16 1QY
Tel: +44 (0)117 3286330