KIT Career ServiceTheses at KIT

Optimizing Traffic Flow in Large Mobile Robot Fleets Using Adaptive Zones

Research topic/area
Mobile Agents and Robotic Systems
Type of thesis
Bachelor / Master
Start time
01.11.2025
Application deadline
30.04.2026
Duration of the thesis
6 Monate

Description

Field:
Mobile robotics is one of the fastest-growing and most dynam-ic areas in intralogistics. As fleet sizes rapidly increase, the challenge shifts from single-robot navigation to large-scale, cooperative fleet coordination. Efficient and adaptive management of these fleets is essential to ensure high system throughput, reliability, and productivi-ty. At the IFL, we are at the forefront of this development, actively contributing to the industry standard VDA 5050, which defines com-munication between mobile robots and fleet management systems.

Problem Statement:
Zone-based coordination is effective for large mobile robot fleets, but the optimal placement, size, and type of zones remain an open research question. Current systems often rely on manually defined zones, which can lead to congestion and re-duced throughput. This thesis focuses on optimizing traffic flow using adaptive zone generation, initially through heuristic methods and po-tentially extending to learning-based approaches. Key questions in-clude determining where zones should be placed, their appropriate granularity, and suitable types for different layouts and fleet sizes, with the potential to explore dynamic adjustment of zones during runtime to further improve efficiency and coordination.

Requirement

Requirements for students
  • Experience with Python or a similar programming language.
  • Knowledge of pathfinding algorithms, multi-agent systems or op-erations research is an advantage.
  • Familiarity with machine learning frameworks is a plus.
  • Problem-solving mindset and an independent working style.

Faculty departments
  • Engineering sciences
    Informatics
    Mechanical engineering
    Mechatronics & information technologies
    Mechanical Engineering
  • Economic & law sciences
    Information Engineering
    Business management


Supervision

Title, first name, last name
M. Sc. Marvin Rüdt
Organizational unit
Institute for Material Handling and Logistics (IFL)
Email address
marvin.ruedt@kit.edu
Link to personal homepage/personal page
Website

Application via email

Application documents
  • Cover letter
  • Curriculum vitae
  • Grade transcript

E-Mail Address for application
Senden Sie die oben genannten Bewerbungsunterlagen bitte per Mail an marvin.ruedt@kit.edu


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