Research Assistant (PHD Candidate, TV-L E13 Level)

Open PhD researcher position in Interdisciplinary Research Center on
Critical Systems Engineering for Socio-Technical Systems in

Oldenburg
The Interdisciplinary Research Center on Critical Systems Engineering for
Socio-Technical Systems in Oldenburg is providing a position for
research assistant (PhD candidate, TV-L E13 level)

Funded by the Lower Saxonian Ministry for Science and Culture and by the
Volkswagen Stiftung the Interdisciplinary Research Center on Critical
Systems Engineering for Socio-Technical Systems is hosted by the
Universitaet Oldenburg, OFFIS Institute for Information Technology, the
Deutsche Zentrum fr Luft- und Raumfahrt und the competence cluster
SafeTRANS.
Strategies for Cooperative Control of

Transportation Systems Subject to Extensive
Dead Times
Problem statement
Controllability of ships, in particular of large vessels, is confined by their
extremely high inertia, resulting not only in sluggish reaction to control
inputs, but also inducing extensive dead times to the state observation of
other ships and the subsequent intention interpretation underlying
cooperative maneuvers. While the problem of stiff reaction to control inputs
is well-understood in direct feedback control, the problem of excessively
long dead times affecting state identification in distributed supervisory
control for safe cooperative maneuvers and traffic management is not. As
an example consider the problem of observing the trajectory of another ship
for determining its operator's probable intention and the associated planned
path.
Such observation is affected by the large delay between a change in rudder
position and the formation of an extrinsically detectable diversion from
expected path, and intention detection consequently is subject to an
inherent dead time if intentions are not additionally communicated directly
between ships or ship-to-shore. As such communication may be unreliable,
a safety gain could be incurred from development of distributed supervisory
control strategies for systems with extensive dead times. Such strategies
should cover the path planning and conflict resolution stages and could
serve as the basis of future advanced operator assistance systems for
maritime traffic, being able to avoid collisions even in narrow and densely
populated fairways.
Approach
Game-theoretic approaches to multi-player strategy synthesis often assume
partial or even complete observability of the current state of all agents by
their peers. Dead times affecting state observation, i.e. substantial latencies
in identifying system states, can in principle be encoded via chains of
additional unobservable states. The consequential blow-up of the state
space, immediately leading to the infamous state-explosion problem in any
distributed and cooperative settings, renders this approach impractical
however. This PhD project shall therefore develop game-theoretic models
for distributed systems with extensive dead times, especially systems
maneuvering in the plane, and shall devise dedicated path planning and
conflict resolution strategies based on this model.
1
Der Dekan
Prof. Dr. Martin Frnzle
TELEFONDURCHWAHL
(0441) 9722-566
EMAIL
martin.fraenzle@informatik.uni-oldenburg.de
SACHBEARBEITER/IN
Christiane Gromann
Telefondurchwahl:
(0441)798-2065
FAX : (0441)798-4199
EMAIL
Christiane.Grossmann@uni-oldenburg.de
OLDENBURG
01.08.2014
POSTANSCHRIFT
D-26111 Oldenburg
PAKETANSCHRIFT
Ammerlnder Heerstrae 114 - 118
D-26129 Oldenburg
BANKVERBINDUNG
Landessparkasse zu Oldenburg (LzO)
BLZ 28050100
Konto 1988112
BIC: BRLAD21LZO
IBAN: DE 4628 0501 0000 0198 8112
Candidates are required to have successfully completed their studies in

Computer Science or a similar area with a Master's degree (or equivalent).
The positions are suitable for PhD candidates. The initial appointment is for two
years, starting in 2014, with an option to extend the position for one additional
year. Applications are accepted until the position is filled. The position is suited
for part-time work.
The Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg is strongly committed to
increasing the proportion of female researchers. Women are therefore
particularly encouraged to apply. The Carl von Ossietzky University implements
an equal opportunity policy in accordance with 21(3) NHG. Candidates with
severe disabilities will be favored when having equal qualification.
Applicants are strongly encouraged to initiate contact with Prof. Axel Hahn
(hahn@offis.de) or Prof. Martin Fraenzle (martin.fraenzle@informatik.unioldenburg.de) prior to their application.
Applications (CV, names of references, if applicable list of publications, cover
letter) are to be directed to
Carl von Ossietzky Universitt Oldenburg
FK II, Department fr Informatik
c/o Lars Rlker-Denker
Escherweg 2
26121 Oldenburg
Germany

Research Assistant (PHD Candidate, TV-L E13 Level)

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Research Assistant (PHD Candidate, TV-L E13 Level)

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Research Assistant (PHD Candidate, TV-L E13 Level)

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Open PhD researcher position in Interdisciplinary Research Center on

Critical Systems Engineering for Socio-Technical Systems in

research assistant (PhD candidate, TV-L E13 level)

Strategies for Cooperative Control of

Candidates are required to have successfully completed their studies in

You might also like