Research Associate (f/m/d) – Safe AI for Robotics in Oldenburg

Research Associate (f/m/d) – Safe AI for Robotics

Would you like to work toward ensuring that humans and robots can collaborate safely and reliably as a team in the future? In this research project, you will combine formal safety mechanisms with multimodal large-language models on embedded systems. The goal is to develop autonomous robotic systems that can act intelligently even when performing complex tasks—such as large-scale assembly—understand their environment, and simultaneously meet the highest safety requirements.

WHAT YOU ENABLE:

They enable the safe operation of robots that autonomously plan and execute tasks in collaboration with humans based on Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models. To this end, you will specifically investigate how to make the output of VLA models accessible to formal safety mechanisms based on contracts (neuro-symbolic reasoning) and how these mechanisms can be used for feedback and training of the VLA model. When executing actions, you will investigate a fallback mechanism that ensures minimally acceptable robot behavior even in the event of a disruption to AI functions. The research project is being conducted in close international collaboration with partners in Taiwan. As part of this collaboration, you will also work on-site with the project partners. To this end, multiple research stays in Taiwan, each lasting approximately one to two months, are planned during the project period.

WHAT YOU BRING TO THE TABLE:

• Master’s degree in computer science or equivalent
• Experience programming high-performance embedded systems, ideally including accelerators (GPU/NPU)
• Basic knowledge of formal or semi-formal methods (e.g., model checking)
• Knowledge in the areas of scheduling and real-time systems
• Willingness to participate in research stays lasting several weeks in Taiwan as part of international project collaboration

WHAT WE OFFER YOU:

• Look forward to a pleasant, people-oriented, and professionally stimulating work environment
• We actively support you in your professional development
• We value work-life balance—which we support through flexible work hours and the option to work from home, among other measures
• Tolerance, openness, and equal opportunity for people of all genders (m/f/d) are important to us
• We would like to continue increasing the proportion of women in our workforce, which has been growing for years
• We give preference to applications from people with severe disabilities if they meet the professional qualifications
• Your position is a two-year fixed-term contract and is compensated according to TV-L Group E13

OFFIS is an application-oriented, internationally focused research and development institute for computer science, founded in 1991 and based in Oldenburg, Lower Saxony. OFFIS and its 200-strong team conduct research and prototype development work at the highest international level in the fields of energy, society, health, and manufacturing, with an average of 70 ongoing projects. OFFIS cooperates with over 700 partners from industry and academia worldwide.