Our team and mission

This position is based at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) – Near Cologne, Germany

Within the XR-Lab, the trainee will work on Virtual Reality applications for astronaut training, medical mission operations and space exploration. The potential usage of XR (Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality or Mixed Reality) and associated haptic devices at EAC are suitable for EVA, robotics, LUNA analogue facility and onboard ISS purposes requiring incremental preparation, prototyping and tests of tools helping the crew and ground support personal to design, prepare or complement space training. XR at EAC is also used in support of mission design for various missions (Low Earth Orbit, EL3 on the Moon, Gateway around the Moon or Mars). When used in weightlessness conditions, XR hardware and software necessitate specific research, modification, tests or ground up design to ensure full realism, functionality, and robust tracking in Zero-G conditions.

For further information visit our web site: http://www.esa.int

Field(s) of activity for the internship

Topic: Computer vision expert in the support of the Medical Augmented Reality Assistant

Technological advancements in the areas of AR have created new possibilities for terrestrial learning and training, allowing information to be presented in different ways and releasing users from the need to see a display screen to retrieve information by allowing them to look directly at the object(s) of interest. As such these technologies provide an opportunity to develop ‘advanced’ procedures for the operation of medical devices. Such an approach has the potential to increase the quality of procedures, both in terms of the delivery of information and ease with which they can be followed by a crewmember with limited or no medical knowledge or experience.

To enable such solution, we propose to focus this position on computer vision supporting the development of MARA (Medical AR Assistant). Activities would include:

• Making use of computer vision and AI technologies to develop a software solution supporting the design, development and validation of a medical AR assistant
• Prototypes of such software has begun at ESA XR-Lab, further developments are needed to be fully integrated in Magic Leap 2 (body parts recognition, pose acquisition for calibration, subject tracking and AR guidance)
• Create a simulated environment using game engines (like Unreal Engine or Unity) to test the AR assistant under controlled conditions

Behavioural competencies

Result Orientation
Operational Efficiency
Fostering Cooperation
Relationship Management
Continuous Improvement
Forward Thinking

Education

You must have student status and be enrolled at university for the entire duration of the internship. You should preferably be in your final or second to last year of a university course at master’s level in a technical or scientific discipline.

Additional requirements

The working languages of the Agency are English and French. A good knowledge of one of these is required. Knowledge of another Member State language would be an asset.

Additional Requirements:

Proven experience with either Unity 3D or Unreal Engine is required.

Experience in at least three of the following areas is required:

• Collaborative software development and maintenance
• Software performance and optimisation techniques
• Advanced computer vision algorithms
• Design and deployment of machine learning systems

Some knowledge in the following areas would be considered an asset for this position:

• Quality assurance for machine learning models
• Signal processing and Control Theory (Kalman filtering, digital filter design, sensor data fusion)
• In addition, knowledge related to XR and its middleware like Vulkan, OpenVR, and OpenXR are considered a plus
• Prior experience with design of medical devices is also desirable