PhD Position eXtended Reality for Inclusive Automated Vehicle Interaction

Automated Vehicles (AVs) are set to transform road travel, promising significant improvements in road safety, accessibility, and transportation equity.

This PhD position focuses on how automated vehicles can interact safely and effectively with vulnerable road users, including people with disabilities.

Job description

As autonomous vehicles move closer to widespread deployment, a critical question remains largely unanswered: how can AVs interact safely and effectively with vulnerable road users (VRUs), including people with disabilities? Such interactions involve complex human decision-making processes that span behavioral, cognitive, psychological, and physiological dimensions. To date, these dimensions have largely been studied in isolation, leaving their interconnections and their role in real-world AV–VRU interactions poorly understood.

The PhD candidate will focus on employing Virtual Reality technologies to understand this complex interaction process and explore how external Human-Machine Interfaces (eHMIs) can enable safer and more inclusive interactions. The PhD position will be based in the Mobility in eXtended Reality Lab at the Department of Transport & Planning, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology.

Job requirements

The PhD candidate will:

• Develop a theoretical framework for identifying key characteristics of AV–VRU interactions and define design criteria for inclusive eHMIs.
• Develop accessible VR simulators for people with disabilities.
• Conduct VR experiments to collect data and model decision-making processes in AV–VRU interactions.
• Conduct real-world testing to evaluate the effectiveness of inclusive eHMI design.
• Collaborate closely with other PhD researchers on related projects and relevant topics.

Your Profile

• Master’s degree in a relevant field (e.g., human-computer interaction, transportation, mechanical engineering, or related disciplines).
• A solid background and strong interest in VR technologies and skills in developing XR applications using Unity/Unreal game engine.
• Strong and demonstrable experimental skills, including experiment design, experiment setup, conducting experiments, and data collection.
• Strong analytic and programming skills (e.g., Python, C#) with proficiency in statistics.
• Strong skills in qualitative and quantitative analysis.
• Good communication and writing skills in English.
• An open-minded personality with a curiosity-driven mindset, positive attitude towards methodological and interdisciplinary research, and willingness to learn from different fields, including transportation, human-computer interaction, and design.
• Prior research and work experience that are relevant to this PhD position is a bonus.

About the employer

The PhD position is based at Delft University of Technology, within the Mobility in eXtended Reality Lab at the Department of Transport & Planning, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences.

Conditions of employment

Doctoral candidates will be offered a 4-year period of employment in principle, but in the form of 2 employment contracts. An initial 1.5 year contract with an official go/no go progress assessment within 15 months, followed by an additional contract for the remaining 2.5 years assuming everything goes well and performance requirements are met.

As a PhD candidate you will be enrolled in the TU Delft Graduate School. The TU Delft Graduate School provides an inspiring research environment with an excellent team of supervisors, academic staff and a mentor. The Doctoral Education Programme is aimed at developing your transferable, discipline-related and research skills.

The TU Delft offers a customisable compensation package, discounts on health insurance, and a monthly work costs contribution. Flexible work schedules can be arranged.