PhD Position Safe GPAI Planning, Decision-Making and Active Perception for Reliable Robot Autonomy

Join TU Delft and the EU-funded OPERA consortium to develop safe GPAI-based planning, decision-making and active perception methods for reliable robot autonomy

Job description

Robots operating in dynamic, real-world environments must make reliable decisions despite uncertainty, incomplete perception, changing conditions, and the presence of people. In the EU-funded OPERA project, TU Delft contributes to the development of General-Purpose AI for robotics by combining fast reactive behavior with more deliberate reasoning, planning, and uncertainty-aware decision-making.

In this PhD position, you will develop methods for safe GPAI-powered planning and decision-making for autonomous robots. Your research will focus on the interface between model-based control, learning-based decision-making, and active perception. You will investigate how robots can decide when to act reactively, when to plan over longer horizons, and when to actively gather additional information before executing a task. This directly supports OPERA’s work on GPAI-powered planning and decision-making in complex and dynamic environments, where robots must combine hybrid data-driven and physics-based architectures, safe navigation envelopes, contingency planning, and active perception.

A central part of the project will be active perception for reliable autonomy. You will study how robots can select informative viewpoints, fuse multimodal sensor data, estimate uncertainty, and adapt their safety margins or plans when perception is incomplete or ambiguous. This connects to OPERA’s work on uncertainty-aware and safe active environment perception, where uncertainty estimates guide safety heatmaps, adaptive sensing, and safety-aware navigation and manipulation.

The core of the research will be safe planning and decision-making under uncertainty, with active perception as a mechanism for reducing uncertainty before or during task execution. Depending on your background, this may involve model predictive control, trajectory optimization, uncertainty-aware planning, sensor fusion, viewpoint selection, contingency planning, or selected elements of safe learning.

You will collaborate with OPERA partners developing perception, world models, simulation tools, and GPAI components, and your work will contribute to the OPERA open-source toolbox.

You will work in the Cognitive Robotics Department at TU Delft under the supervision of Prof. Robert Babuška and Dr. Laura Ferranti. You will be embedded in the Reliable Robot Control Lab and contribute to TU Delft’s OPERA work on reliable, adaptive, and trustworthy robot autonomy.

Job requirements

The ideal candidate for this PhD position has a strong technical background and is enthusiastic about contributing to safe, intelligent, and trustworthy robot autonomy. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds who are motivated to work at the intersection of planning, learning, and perception.

You have:

• A MSc degree in Systems and Control, Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, or a closely related field.

• A strong interest in working across multiple research domains, including motion planning, control, perception, and machine learning.

• Excellent programming skills, particularly in Python and/or C++, and experience with modern software development tools.

• A passion for ground breaking theoretical research combined with an eagerness to test ideas on real robotic systems.

• Strong analytical and mathematical abilities, enabling you to work confidently with algorithms, optimization, probability, or learning frameworks.

• Excellent communication skills and proficiency in English (written and verbal), as required for academic publication and international collaboration.

You are particularly encouraged to apply if you have experience in one or more of the following areas:

• MPC, optimal control, trajectory optimisation, motion planning.

• Safe/robust control and decision-making under uncertainty.

• Active perception, sensor fusion, uncertainty estimation, viewpoint planning.

• Reinforcement learning or safe learning as useful, but not the main identity.

• ROS/ROS2, simulation and real robotic validation.

As part of this OPERA, you will be requested to travel to visit the different partners in the consortium and attend the regular project meetings.

We particularly encourage applications from women and other underrepresented groups, as we are committed to building a diverse and inclusive research environment.

TU Delft (Delft University of Technology)

Delft University of Technology is built on strong foundations. As creators of the world-famous Dutch waterworks and pioneers in biotech, TU Delft is a top international university combining science, engineering and design. It delivers world class results in education, research and innovation to address challenges in the areas of energy, climate, mobility, health and digital society. For generations, our engineers have proven to be entrepreneurial problem-solvers, both in business and in a social context.

At TU Delft we embrace diversity as one of our core values and we actively engage to be a university where you feel at home and can flourish. We value different perspectives and qualities. We believe this makes our work more innovative, the TU Delft community more vibrant and the world more just. Together, we imagine, invent and create solutions using technology to have a positive impact on a global scale. That is why we invite you to apply. Your application will receive fair consideration.

Challenge. Change. Impact!

Faculty Mechanical Engineering

From chip to ship. From machine to human being. From idea to solution. Driven by a deep-rooted desire to understand our environment and discover its underlying mechanisms, research and education at the ME faculty focusses on fundamental understanding, design, production including application and product improvement, materials, processes and (mechanical) systems.

ME is a dynamic and innovative faculty with high-tech lab facilities and international reach. It’s a large faculty but also versatile, so we can often make unique connections by combining different disciplines. This is reflected in ME’s outstanding, state-of-the-art education, which trains students to become responsible and socially engaged engineers and scientists. We translate our knowledge and insights into solutions to societal issues, contributing to a sustainable society and to the development of prosperity and well-being. That is what unites us in pioneering research, inspiring education and (inter)national cooperation.

Click here to go to the website of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. Do you want to experience working at our faculty? These videos will introduce you to some of our researchers and their work.

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.

Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities, increasing from €3059 - €3881 gross per month, from the first year to the fourth year based on a fulltime contract (38 hours), plus 8% holiday allowance and an end-of-year bonus of 8.3%.

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.

Will you need to relocate to the Netherlands for this job? TU Delft is committed to make your move as smooth as possible! The HR unit, Coming to Delft Service, offers information on their website to help you prepare your relocation. In addition, Coming to Delft Service organises events to help you settle in the Netherlands, and expand your (social) network in Delft. A Dual Career Programme is available, to support your accompanying partner with their job search in the Netherlands.

Additional information

For more information, please reach out to Laura Ferranti and Robert Babuska [l.ferranti@tudelft.nl or r.babuska@tudelft.nl].

Application procedure

Are you interested in this vacancy? Please apply no later than 1 July 2026 via the application button and upload the following documents:

• A letter of motivation explaining why you are the right candidate for this project
• An updated cv
• Exam transcipts from your Bachelor and Master
• A copy of your MSc thesis, or draft MSc thesis (or a link to access it)

You can address your application to Laura Ferranti and Robert Babuska.

Doing a PhD at TU Delft requires English proficiency at a certain level to ensure that the candidate is able to communicate and interact well, participate in English-taught Doctoral Education courses, and write scientific articles and a final thesis. For more details please check the Graduate Schools Admission Requirements.

Please note:

• #EUfunded This is an EU funded project, named OPERA, with project number 101298363, within program HORIZON/HORIZON-CL4-2025-04-DIGITAL-EMERGING-07
• You can apply online. We will not process applications sent by email and/or post.
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