Control Internship Opportunity: Evasive Path Planning Using Optimal Control

We are looking for a student to join the Demcon Unmanned team in Scheveningen for a control internship opportunity focused on evasive path planning using optimal control.

About Demcon

At Demcon Unmanned Systems (DUS), we develop and manufacture advanced, electric and hybrid-powered unmanned autonomous vessels (USVs) for inspection, monitoring, and maintenance applications ranging from shallow inland waters to complex offshore environments. Our USVs are modular and custom-designed, based on our own technological innovations in autonomous navigation, the USV control system, remote operating centers, and system integration.

As part of the Demcon Group, we benefit from the strength and multidisciplinary expertise of a leading technology company. Our team consists of passionate professionals who collaborate to develop high-quality and innovative systems. In doing so, we contribute to a safer, more efficient, and more sustainable world on and around the water.

Your assignment

Our Unmanned Surface Vessels (USVs) are equipped with many sensors that can be used to detect other vessels. These detections are then used in our path planning algorithms to avoid the other vessels by generating evasive plans. These evasive plans are communicated with the rest of the stack, so it can be executed. There are many ways to solve the path planning problem. In this internship, you will develop a new type of path planning algorithm that will use optimal control to determine evasive plans.

The new path planner is to be developed in our collision avoidance stack and tested in our simulator. It is also to be compared against the existing path planner that is already running aboard our vessels. Potentially, it can be tested on one of our USVs as well to evaluate real-life performance.

During the assignment, you will also gain experience in important software engineering topics like code reviews, Git, the software development cycle, and much more.

Your growth, our pride!

• Programming experience in C++ and Python
• Background in control or related
• Experience with ROS 2 is a plus
• Engineering study