Master in Mechatronics, Electrical engineering or similar - GNC for Active Debris Removal with a Robotic Arm

Start your mission with DLR.

We are looking for our German Trainee Programme (GTP) in cooperation with ESA in Noordwijk / ESTEC, The Netherlands

Master in Mechatronics, Electrical engineering or similar GNC for Active Debris Removal with a Robotic Arm

Your mission:
Have you (almost) completed your degree studies? Are you inspired by space exploration and keen to pursue a career in this exciting field? If so, perhaps you should take a closer look at the German Trainee Programme. Organised by DLR, it offers you the chance to work shoulder to shoulder with experts from the 22 member states of ESA - keeping your finger on the pulse of Europe‘s space programmes. Over a period up to 24 months, you will actively contribute to the latest research and/or technology projects. This is complemented by a generous scholarship. What better way to launch your career in international space business? The next GTP commences in February/March 2017. This is your opportunity to join the team at ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands.
The Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) Section is responsible for project support and technology development of space applications in the following areas:

• Design and implementation of Guidance, Navigation and Control Systems for Planetary exploration missions, Launchers, Ascent and Re-entry vehicles, Formation Flying Systems
• Failure Detection Isolation and Recovery of GNC
• Technology development of GNC sensors and inertial actuators
• Development of advanced control, estimation and optimization techniques and tools
• Enabling R/D activities for Autonomous Rendezvous and Formation Flying, Ascent and Re-entry vehicles, Entry, Descent and Landing Systems, Vision-based and Hybrid Navigation
• Performance analysis for launchers and re-entry vehicles including safety
• Definition, maintenance and operation of the necessary tools and laboratory facilities in support of above activities

The selected Trainee will work in relevant techniques and technologies for GNC systems on support to the Active Debris Removal (ADR) mission, currently in phases A and B1. The Active Debris Removal mission is an ESA mission to explore and demonstrate technologies for future automated capture and deorbit of an un-cooperative target that has never before been performed. The GNC subsystem is a key element of the mission to enable accurate characterisation of the rotational state of the target system and successful deployment of robot arm to capture it: the clean space blog. The Guidance, Navigation and Control Section TEC-ECN is part of the project team currently involved in the feasibility assessment and preliminary definition of the mission.
The Trainee will learn how to use the tools available in the Section (MATLAB-based ADR GNC simulator) as well as the Section’s GNC testing facilities (GRALS) and the DLR RMC in Oberpfaffenhofen-Weßling testing facilities. The Trainee will work in a team interacting with the ESA section colleagues and with DLR (Prof. Dr. J. Bals): DLRRMC-Videos

Tasks:

The Trainee will accomplish the following tasks:

• Enhancement of the Active Debris Removal (ADR) GNC simulation environment, implementing all modifications to the simulation models and the GNC algorithms needed to support the project design maturation, currently in phases A and B1
• Integration and verification of a Processor-in-the-loop (PIL) testing facility. This task consists of setting up a flight representative motherboard and avionics bus and, subsequently, integrating auto-coded GNC software into the motherboard
• Setup and verification of a Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) experiments. In this task, the trainee shall integrate the PIL avionics setup, the available hardware models of GNC units, and all needed interfaces into the GRALS (GNC Rendezvous, Approach and Landing Simulator) robotics facility at ESTEC as well as in the DLR – Robotics and Mechatronics Center (RMC) in Oberpfaffenhofen-Weßling robotic testing facilities
• Verification, validation, and closed-loop testing of the ADR GNC using the developed PIL and HIL facilities. The trainee shall run the tests on PIL and HIL facilities mentioned above and analyse the test results and assess the performance and functional behaviour of the GNC system under test

Your qualifications:

• German citizenship is absolutely necessary
• Applicants should have just completed (conclusion not older than two years) or be in their final year of a university course at Master’s level in a technical or scientific discipline
• Good command of MATLAB and knowledge of C computer programming language is required
• Candidates must be fluent in English or French, the official languages of the agency

Your benefits:

Expect a fulfilling job within a demanding environment where your commitment is highly appreciated. Closing date for this position is 04. September 2016. The interviews are tentatively scheduled for week 46/2016. Please visit the German Trainee Programme page for essential details of our application procedures. Your application should consist of a motivation letter and your CV only (CV exclusively in Europass format). Unfortunately we cannot consider further documents. We look forward to your e-mail application in English, citing GTP-2017-TEC-ECN, to