Emergent Systems in Production

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Project Description

This 3-semester M-APR project (starting WiSe 2026/2027) compares centralised and decentralised coordination strategies for heterogeneous robot fleets in simulated and real production scenarios. The scientific contribution lies in the empirical characterisation of the transition between both coordination paradigms under varied adversarial conditions.

Structure over Three Semesters

Semester 1 — Foundations and Simulation

Literature review on decentralised coordination and multi-agent reinforcement learning
Building the ROS 2-based simulation environment (at least two agent types: mobile and stationary)
Implementation of a centralised baseline and a simple decentralised approach

Semester 2 — Comparative Study and Learning-Based Coordination

Implementation of learning-based decentralised coordination (MARL)
Systematic comparison under varied adversarial conditions (communication failure, machine failure, dynamic order changes)
Statistical evaluation and identification of transition points between coordination regimes

Semester 3 — Validation and Publication

Transfer of selected scenarios to real hardware at TTZ
Evaluation of sim-to-real transferability
Completion of master’s thesis and preparation of a conference publication (MAPR conference)

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, computer science, mechatronics, robotics or equivalent
Programming in C++ and/or Python
Basic knowledge of machine learning / reinforcement learning
Experience with ROS 2 and simulation (Gazebo or similar) is an advantage
Interest in multi-agent systems and production robotics

This topic can also be completed as a project or master’s thesis subject to agreement.

Supervision

Role	Name	E-Mail
Supervisor	Prof. Dr. Christian Pfitzner	christian.pfitzner@th-nuernberg.de
Co-Supervisor	Waldemar Haag	waldemar.haag@th-nuernberg.de

Location: TTZ Nürnberger Land, Lauf an der Pegnitz

Further information: TTZ Nürnberger Land · Mobile Robotics Lab

Handling of Flexible Materials Using Robot Arms

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Project Description

This 3-semester M-APR project (starting WiSe 2026/2027) addresses the handling of flexible materials by robot arms. The exact focus is agreed jointly and can cover hardware aspects (gripping technologies) or software/AI aspects (simulation, learning-based control). The work concludes with implementation in a real robot cell at the TTZ Nürnberger Land.

Possible Focus Areas

Hardware-oriented

Analysis of gripping principles for flexible materials (vacuum, adhesive, form-adaptive)
Development and fabrication of a specialised gripper
Experimental evaluation of reproducibility

Software / AI-oriented

Building a simulation environment for deformable objects
Model-based control or Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL)
Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models for flexible manipulation
Sim-to-real transfer and evaluation in the robot cell

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, computer science, mechatronics, robotics or equivalent
Programming in C++ and/or Python
Basic knowledge of machine learning
Basic knowledge of robotics
Interest in flexible material handling
Independent and goal-oriented working style
Willingness to engage with new topics

This topic can also be completed as a project or master’s thesis subject to agreement.

Supervision

Role	Name	E-Mail
Supervisor	Prof. Dr. Christian Pfitzner	christian.pfitzner@th-nuernberg.de
Co-Supervisor	M. Sc. Patrick Fußy	patrick.fussy@th-nuernberg.de

Location: TTZ Nürnberger Land, Martin-Luther-Straße 18, Lauf an der Pegnitz

Further information: TTZ Nürnberger Land · Mobile Robotics Lab

M-APR | Mobile Robotics Research Group — Prof. Dr. Christian Pfitzner

Emergent Systems in Production

Project Description

Structure over Three Semesters

Requirements

Supervision

Handling of Flexible Materials Using Robot Arms

Project Description

Possible Focus Areas

Requirements

Supervision