We are consistently searching for motivated Students from Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, and similar to work with us. We can offer topics suitable for a Bachelor's or Master's Thesis and internships or student jobs (Werkstudententätigkeit).
If you're interested and would like more information, please don't hesitate to contact Prof. Lilienthal or any chair member.
Master’s Thesis: Intelligent Sampling Strategy for Open Path Gas Sensing with Mobile Robots Using Reinforcement Learning
Gas leaks in industry or nature can harm humans, animals, and infrastructure. Finding the sources of an invisible, potentially hazardous gas can be even more dangerous for human workers. So, it sounds like a perfect job for robots! To avoid that the robot needs to get in touch with the gas, open-path laser-based sensors are the means of choice. These systems allow us to remotely measure the gas concentration between two robots.
Your Mission is to develop a strategy for navigating the robots to take remote measurements. This needs to be done in an intelligent way such that we can determine the locations of gas as fast as possible. Therefore, you will train the multi-agent system with reinforcement learning algorithms. To evaluate the sampling performance of your trained agents, you will compare it with other methods in terms of time and efficiency.
Prerequisites:
- Excellent programming skills in Python
- Preferable experience in PyTorch or TensorFlow
- Background in Informatics or Robotics (CIT School)
- Independent and self-motivated working
If you are interested, just send an email to marius.schaab(at)tum.de and thomas.wiedemann(at)tum.de with a short CV and your grade report.
Master’s Thesis: Multi-Agent Formation Planning for Gas Detection
Mobile robots or drones equipped with appropriate sensors are perfect platforms for sampling toxic or dangerous airborne trace substances or gases to avoid threads for human operators. In emergency scenarios, deploying multiple agents to reduce response times is further advantageous.
The goal of the thesis is to plan optimal formations and paths for a multi-agent system to increase the chance of detecting gas emitted from a source at an unknown location. The planning should incorporate environmental parameters, like wind, and model assumption of gas propagation in air.
Requirements:
- Excellent programming skills in Python
- Good knowledge of numerical methods (FEM, parameter estimation, optimization)
- Self-motivated working and a good working knowledge of English or German
- Student at CIT
The Master’s Thesis might be carried out in collaboration with the Swarm Exploration Group at the Institute of Communications and Navigation at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Oberpfaffenhofen.
If you are interested, please send an email to thomas.wiedemann@tum.de with a short CV and your grade report.
Master’s Thesis: Visual Tracking of a UAV for Open-Path Measurements
Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy (TDLAS) allows us to infer the gas concentration with a laser by measuring the amount of absorbed energy along the laser path. Our goal is to integrate this measurement concept into a robotic system. Therefore, a robot will be equipped with the TDLAS sensor and a flying UAV with a retro-reflector that reflects the laser beam to the sensor. This allows us to measure the gas concentration in the air between the robot and the UAV.
To this end, a crucial task is to align the laser towards the reflector mounted on the UAV. The goal of the thesis is to develop a controller for a pan-tilt unit carrying the laser. The pan-tilt unit must direct the laser to the UAV and track it over time. The planned approach is to detect and track the UAV using a visual camera.
Requirements:
- Excellent programming skills in Python or C++
- Preferable background in control theory
- Very strong interest in implementation tasks in combination with hardware (single board computer)
- Experience in image processing/OpenCV
- Self-motivated working and a good working knowledge of English or German
- Student at CIT
The Master’s Thesis might be carried out in collaboration with the Swarm Exploration Group at the Institute of Communications and Navigation at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Oberpfaffenhofen.
If you are interested, please send an email to thomas.wiedemann@tum.de with a short CV and your grade report.