项目介绍

2026年5月25日

At the M-Group at KU Leuven Bruges Campus, we are driving innovation in interconnected, intelligent mechatronic systems. A dedicated part of our team focuses on dependable autonomous systems and dynamic safety assurance, addressing the latest challenges in safety-critical autonomous operation and advancing the future of this rapidly evolving field in close collaboration with Flanders Make.

With the newly launched COSAIN project – “Co-Designing Safety, Control and Perception for Autonomous Outdoor Operation” – we are looking for an ambitious junior researcher to help develop next-generation methods for runtime safety assurance in autonomous systems operating in complex, uncertain environments.

Unit website

Project

COSAIN addresses a key challenge in autonomous systems: ensuring safe behaviour in dynamic and uncertain outdoor environments where perception, control, and safety are tightly interconnected. The project introduces a novel co-design approach centred around Dynamic Safety Cases (DSCs) that evolve during system operation and interact with perception, modelling, and control components. 
As a PhD researcher, you will play a central scientific role in developing executable and runtime-integrated safety assurance mechanisms for the COSAIN project. Your responsibilities include:

• Developing machine-readable and executable safety case representations and methods to derive runtime monitoring requirements and safety performance indicators.
• Contributing to the development of dynamic safety case frameworks and their integration with runtime data and system behaviour.
• Collaborating closely within an interdisciplinary team working on perception, modelling, and control.
• Participating in experiments and validation (simulation, hardware-in-the-loop, real-world demonstrators).
• Collaborating with industrial partners and contributing to use cases in domains such as inland navigation and robotics.
• Publish research results in leading international journals and conferences.

Profile

We are looking for a candidate with the following background:

• A master degree in Safety Engineering, Computer Science, Electronics, Electrical Engineering, or a closely related field.
• Strong interest in safety engineering, autonomous systems, or cyber-physical systems.
• Experience or interest in safety analysis methods and runtime safety assurance approaches.
• Familiarity with model-based safety engineering tools is a strong plus.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent communication and scientific writing skills in English.
• Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively in multidisciplinary teams.

Offer

We offer:

• A fully funded 4-year PhD position at KU Leuven.
• The opportunity to contribute to pioneering interdisciplinary research at the intersection of safety engineering, autonomous systems, and runtime assurance.
• Access to advanced simulation environments and real-world autonomous system demonstrators (including vessel experiments).
• A dynamic and internationally connected research environment with strong industrial involvement through Flanders Make.
• Opportunities to collaborate with leading companies in autonomous systems, robotics, maritime technology, and sensing.
• Participation in international conferences, workshops and collaborative European research initiatives.
• A competitive salary and a comprehensive package of university benefits.

Interested?

For more information please contact Prof. dr. ir. Davy Pissoort, mail: davy.pissoort@kuleuven.be or Mr. Dries Vanoost, mail: dries.vanoost@kuleuven.be.You can apply for this job no later than July 10, 2026 via the online application tool