The Intelligent Autonomous Systems Group (Department of Informatics, TU München) is looking for excellent doctoral and post-doctoral researchers.

Our research focuses on cognition-enabled mobile manipulation, aiming at integrating perception, knowledge representation, reasoning, task planning, motion planning and action execution on physical robots performing complex, realistic tasks. Recent demonstrations include baking pancakes, preparing Bavarian sausages, and mobile pick-and-place-tasks including interaction with articulated objects like cupboards and drawers.

As part of the PR2 beta program by Willow Garage, the group has received a PR2 robot to develop the CRAM (Cognitive Robot Abstract Machine) framework (http://ias.cs.tum.edu/new/research/cram). CRAM is a software toolbox for the design, the implementation, and the deployment of cognition-enabled autonomous robots performing everyday manipulation activities. CRAM equips autonomous robots with lightweight reasoning mechanisms that can infer control decisions rather than requiring the decisions to be preprogrammed.

The IAS group is integrated into the cluster of excellence “Cognition for Technical Systems”, in which more than 120 researchers from different disciplines and 5 renowned research institutes collaborate. Furthermore, the IAS group is involved in several national and European projects and collaborates with multiple renowned research groups all over the world.

TU München enjoys an excellent international reputation as an academic leader and has been consistently ranked as one of the three best universities in Germany. The Munich area itself offers high quality of living, with unparalleled out-door recreational opportunities and a great cultural life.

Candidates for PhD positions should have a Master's degree in computer science or equivalent. Expertise in one or more topics related to our research on cognition-enabled autonomous robots is expected, e.g. artificial intelligence, robotics, knowledge representation, task planning, control systems engineering, probabilistic models, and machine learning. Experience in working with real robot systems is a plus.

The candidates should have strong programming skills in more than one language, preferably including a functional programming language, and should be interested in programming language design concepts.

Research in our group involves close collaboration with other team members and with international partners. Candidates should therefore be willing to work in a team and to integrate their work into the complete robotic system. Software developed in the group is usually released as open source, and candidates are expected to actively contribute to our open-source activities.

International candidates are encouraged to apply, knowledge of the German language is not required, though fluent English is a must.

We offer a full-time employment as scientific research staff with the option of obtaining a doctoral degree. The successful candidates will perform research in the context of our Cognitive Robot Abstract Machine project, working on cognition-enabled mobile manipulation in close collaboration with the other members of the group and international partners. They are further expected to contribute to the group's teaching program and will be given the opportunity to work with Bachelor and Master students.

The employment is limited with the possibility of extension to four years. The position is to be filled at the earliest date possible. The salary will be according to the German TV-L E13 payment scheme. TU München aims for a higher proportion of women. Therefore, applications from women are explicitly appreciated. Severely disabled people will be considered preferentially if qualifications are basically equal.

Applicants should provide the following material:

• Motivation letter that briefly describes the candidate's background
• CV
• Academic certificates
• Date of availability

All documents should be submitted as a PDF file via email to Michael Beetz beetz@cs.tum.edu, CC to Moritz Tenorth tenorth@cs.tum.edu. For further questions please contact Moritz Tenorth (+49-89-289-26912, tenorth@cs.tum.edu) or consult our website.

Applicants are encouraged to contact Michael Beetz during IROS 2011 in San Francisco or Humanoids 2011 in Bled, Slovenia.

• Intelligent Autonomous Systems Group: http://ias.cs.tum.edu
• Our robots making pancakes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4usoE981e7I
• Our robots preparing Bavarian breakfast: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbIDPqb_2iM
• Cognitive Robot Abstract Machine (CRAM) http://ias.cs.tum.edu/new/research/cram
• TU München: http://www.tum.de/
• Salary calculator (in German): http://oeffentlicher-dienst.info/c/t/rechner/tv-l/west?id=tv-l-2011