PhD/Postdoc Position for Safe Navigation of Autonomous Ships

18.08.2025, Wissenschaftliches Personal

The research group Cyber-Physical Systems of Prof. Matthias Althoff at the Technical University of Munich offers a PhD/Postdoc position in the area of safe navigation of autonomous ships. The Technical University of Munich is one of the top research universities in Europe fostering a strong entrepreneurial spirit and international culture.

Expected Starting Date: December 2025 - March 2026

Closing Date for Applicants: 30 September 2025

Duration: 3 years with a possible extension ( individual duration for Postdocs).

Project and Job Description

Maritime trade is of central importance for global trade. Much of it is based on the transportation of goods by large container ships. These are not very flexible due to fixed routes, cause environmental problems and are prone to serious and costly accidents due to human error. Solutions to these problems, such as sustainable drives and autonomous navigation, are not yet fully developed and are still at the experimental stage. To address these issues, the company CargoKite ( https://cargokite.com/ ) is developing a wind-powered ship for autonomous, highly flexible global container transportation, which is currently at the concept stage. This is a transport ship with kite-based propulsion and an additional diesel engine to bridge port trips and wind lulls.

In this project, we develop with CargoKite a new type of collision avoidance and control system for real-time control and operation at autonomy level 3 as defined by the International Maritime Organization (IMO 1). The control system to be developed will almost completely avoid collisions and maximize efficiency through innovative AI-based movement and maneuv er planning. For the first time, innovative machine learning concepts, such as "shadow learning”, are being used. Appropriate interfaces are also being developed for the new control system so that, in addition to its use in the CargoKite container ship, a stand-alone package is created that can also be used for other wind-powered and purely motor-powered ships and will be marketable as an independent product. The new system to be developed will be tested and optimized with an existing CargoKite ship prototype in real operation.

Previous Work

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=10530091

Job Specifications

• For PhD applicants: Excellent Master’s degree (or equivalent) in computer science, engineering, or related disciplines (typically mathematics, physics).

• For P ostdoc applicants: Excellent track record in computer science or engineering.

• Fluency in spoken and written English is required.

• Proficient in at least one programming language, e.g. MATLAB, C/C++, Python.

• Highly motivated and keen on working in an international and interdisciplinary team.

• Applicants with strong background in the following fields are preferred:

• Dynamical Systems

• Control Theory

• Formal Methods

• Machine Learning

Context

The applicant will be directly advised by Prof. Matthias Althoff (https://www.ce.cit.tum.de/cps/members/prof-dr-ing-matthias-althoff/). Besides excellent skills for conducting innovative science, the candidate should also be talented in implementing research results on a real ship and lead teams of students.

Our Offer

PhD remuneration will be in line with the current German collective pay agreement TV-L E13 (around 4600 Euros/month in the first year, 4900 Euros/month second year). The Technical University of Munich is an equal opportunity employer committed to excellence through diversity. We explicitly encourage women to apply and preference will be given to disabled applicants with equivalent qualifications.

Contact

International candidates are highly encouraged to apply. Please submit your complete application (in English or German) via our application form: https://wiki.tum.de/display/cpsforms/Ph.D.+Application . Fill out all mandatory fields (*) and kindly use "Safe Autonomous Ships” as the "Title of Position”. Please do not include a cover letter.

Further similar job offerings will be announced on https://www.ce.cit.tum.de/cps/open-positions/ .

Kontakt: michael.eichelbeck@tum.de