As Austria's largest research and technology organisation for applied research, we are dedicated to make substantial contributions to solving the major challenges of our time, climate change and digitisation. To achieve our goals, we rely on our specific research, development and technology competencies, which are the basis of our commitment to excellence in all areas. With our open culture of innovation and our motivated, international teams, we are working to position AIT as Austria's leading research institution at the highest international level and to make a positive contribution to the economy and society.
Our Center for Vision, Automation & Control located in Vienna invites applications for a master’s thesis. The Center for Vision, Automation & Control exploits the opportunities provided by automation and digitisation to initiate and advance innovation for industry, primarily in Austria and Europe. Our main goal is to take away the monotonous, heavy, difficult and dangerous aspects of people’s work through innovation. We help our partners by making technical systems more robust, reliable, flexible and easy to use. At the same time, we increase the resource efficiency of industrial processes by reducing waste, product failures and emissions.
Our Competence Unit Complex Dynamical Systems focuses on the development and deployment of algorithms to control various types of systems. Starting from low energy applications like electronics and drive systems, via (large-scale) robotics to heavy industrial applications. We are working in projects in cooperation with national and international research organisations and companies leading their market sector.
- Imagine a scenario where we need a robotic assistant to pick up a cup from a kitchen of everyday items, including a knife, a fork, a cup, and a pair of scissors. In human communication, we would simply say, “Grasp the cup for me'' to convey this task.
- Although humans intuitively know how to grasp the cup given the linguistic command, determining specific grasp actions for objects based on natural language instructions or language-driven grasp detection remains challenging for robots grasp detection remains challenging for robots.
- In essence, while robots are making remarkable steps in comprehending natural language, there is a crucial need to bridge the gap between high-level language understanding and the precise execution of tasks. Overcoming this challenge is important for enhancing the adaptability and versatility of robotic systems in diverse real-world situations.
- In this Master thesis, you will work on developing a comprehensive application guiding the robot to execute grasping actions based on specific language instructions like "Please grasp the yellow object."
- Possible research steps are (1) the creation of a synthetic speech-driven grasping dataset and (2) the application of an existing trajectory planning approach to perform the grasping task.
- You will broaden your knowledge and skills in the field of motion planning, machine learning, computer vision, and automation & control theory.
- You will train in scientific work and have the opportunity to discuss your experiences with scientific interdisciplinary experts from the field of automation & control, machine learning.
- You may publish your results at a conference or in a journal.
Your qualifications as an Ingenious Partner:
- Ongoing master's studies in the field of Robotics, Mechatronics, AI, or a comparable technical field.
- Good knowledge in Automation & Control, Machine Learning
- Programming experience in Python / C++, Matlab
- Knowledge of Pytorch is advantageous
- Good knowledge of English or German in word and writing
What to expect:
- Duration of the master’s thesis project: 6 months
- EUR 534,-- gross per month for 12 hours/week based on the collective agreement. There will be additional company benefits. As a research institution, we are familiar with the supervision and execution of master theses, and we are looking forward to supporting you accordingly!
At AIT diversity and inclusion are of great importance. This is why we strive to inspire women to join our teams in the field of technology. We welcome applications from women, who will be given preference in case of equal qualifications after considering all relevant facts and circumstances of all applications.
Please submit your application documents including your CV, cover letter, relevant certificates (transcript of records) online: https://jobs.ait.ac.at/Job/223537
