The Autonomous System group at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
(MBARI) invites applications for 1 postdoc position.
MBARI (http://www.mbari.org) is a private non-profit Oceanographic research
institute located in Moss Landing, California, in the heart of the largest
marine sanctuary in the United States, just outside Silicon Valley. The
institute is an inter-disciplinary research institution guided by a strong peer
relationship between scientists, engineers and marine operations staff. MBARI
pioneered the use of Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs
http://www.mbari.org/dmo/vessels_vehicles/tiburon/tiburon.html) and Autonomous
Underwater Vehicles (AUVs http://www.mbari.org/auv/default.htm) for deep ocean
research and continues to be at the cutting edge of marine robotics, marine
sensor development, ocean chemistry, marine geology, micro-biology and ecology.
The position is highly competitive.
Research Focus:
The Autonomous Systems group is uniquely placed as being the only Artificial
Intelligence group within an operational oceanographic setting anywhere. The
focus of the groups effort is in
using computational methods in AI in dealing with vehicle adaptation, sampling
and control with emphasis in automated reasoning for embodied robust
intelligence for autonomous platforms including Automated Planning/Execution,
Constraint-Based Reasoning and Machine Learning. The key emphasis will be in
multi-vehicle coordination and control for heterogenous vehicles (underwater,
surface and aerial) in the coastal ocean and evaluating and understanding the
mix of onboard and onshore autonomy with human in-the-loop.
Research Environment:
The Autonomous Systems group was established in 2005 by researchers from NASA
with extensive background in commanding spacecraft including the twin Mars
Rovers Spirit and Opportunity. A strong inter-disciplinary effort with
biological oceanographers at MBARI and others outside has driven the design and
deployment of a hybrid executive which enables an AUV to adaptively sample the
environment using Planning and Machine Learning techniques to inform dynamic
in-situ behavior. Publishing in peer-reviewed conferences and journals in AI,
Robotics and the Ocean Sciences and interacting with scientists in the fields
of biology, chemistry, ecology, genetics, ocean physics, marine robotics is an
important aspect of the research effort as is going to sea. The group
collaborates with AI and Robotics researchers in academia within the US and
Europe and hosts visiting graduate students and researchers from within the US,
Europe and Asia.
Key topic areas of interest for this position are:
1. Multi-vehicle control in communication encumbered settings
2. Automated Planning and Execution
3. Machine Learning for dynamic oceanographic features
4. Constraint-based Reasoning
5. Constraint-based Plan visualization
Applicants are encouraged to communicate with the PI ([email protected])
for project feasibility and relevance to ongoing MBARI research. Women and
minorities are strongly encouraged to apply. Details of the application process
are at http://www.mbari.org/oed/jobs/Postdocs_2013.html. The deadline for
applications is Wednesday December 12th 2012.
Autonomous System group Web pages: http://www.mbari.org/autonomy/index.htm
Autonomy Publications: http://www.mbari.org/autonomy/Publications/index.htm
MBARI Strategic Plan:
http://www.mbari.org/about/sp/MBARI_Strategic_Plan_2011.pdf
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