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 maneuver 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.

Please refer the Job description for details