Control System Development for Autonomous Vehicles

Applications must be submitted via the Zintellect website via the external link provided.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL), located in Hanover, New Hampshire, builds innovative products that support the warfighter, water resources, environment, infrastructure and homeland security. CRREL uses a multi-disciplinary research approach that solves the most difficult environmental physics and cold region engineering problems. With recognized international expertise, CRREL fosters partnerships across government agencies, academia and industry to solve complex problems.

CRREL is seeking a participant to be involved in a project devoted to the development of a control system for an autonomous vehicle. Unlike commercial self-driving technologies, the effort will be focused on the off-road self-driving vehicles. In such scenario, new challenges arise, such as identification of impassible routes, re-routing to alternative routes, optimal control for stable and successful vehicle maneuvering. A participant will be embedded in a collaborative environment and will have hands-on experience in formulation of the problems for autonomous vehicles, data collection, developing algorithms for supervised learning for automatic obstacle detection, characterization, terrain recognition, and optimal routing.

An ORISE appointment period can be a short-term (less than 2 weeks), summer (10-12 weeks), or yearlong appointment. Faculty appointments are generally for 10-12 weeks during the summer, but appointments during the academic year are also available. Appointments may be extended depending on funding availability, project assignment, program rules, and availability of the participant.

Participants will receive a stipend to be determined by ERDC-CRREL. Stipends are typically based on the participant’s academic standing, discipline, experience, and research facility location. Other benefits may include the following:

The participant will not enter into an employee/employer relationship with ORISE, ORAU, DOD, or any other office or agency. Instead, the participant will be affiliated with ORISE for the administration of the appointment through the ORISE appointment letter and Terms of Appointment.

A candidate should have a solid knowledge in robotics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, image processing, automatic classification, and experience in formulation and algorithm development for autonomous vehicles. Direct experience in designing of self-driving (scale model) vehicles is encouraged.

Skills required:

1. Knowledge of Matlab (specifically, Statistical and Machine Learning Toolbox and Image Processing Toolbox).

2. Algorithm development.

3. Experience in designing and solving machine learning problems for self-driving vehicles or similar projects.