Master Thesis Work in Robotics i Västerås

Join ABB and work in a team that is dedicated to creating a future where innovative digital technologies allow greater access to cleaner energy.

You will be part of the controller software group at ABB Robotics. We are responsible for a wide range of areas within the software in the robot controller including operating systems, basic services, I/O system, client communication interfaces, robot orchestration, robot programming language, and controller MMI. We develop the software platform for the robot controller using modern technologies, processes, and tools.

The actual scope of the project will depend on the applicant´s CV and the priorities within the development teams.
Yet there are some possible areas for a thesis project within the controller software area that will be described in more detail in the “Your responsibilities” section. Are you a potential candidate for fitting in any of these interesting and challenging Master thesis topics you are most welcome to apply!

• Investigating how to use Intel Real time instruction trace for troubleshooting and code coverage: Real time instruction trace is a technology built into the CPU we are using in our robot controller. We would like an investigation on how to make use of that so that we can attach such a trace to our diagnostics data, and if we can use the trace for calculating code coverage when running our tests.
• Running VxWorks simulations on PC: Being able to execute our code on VxWorks without the need of having a robot controller available would save us time developing and troubleshooting. Can we use an open source emulator such as QEMU for this purpose? Another track on this theme might be to investigate if WindRiver Simics can be worth investing in.
• Diagnostic handling and monitoring of Industrial Ethernet Networks: This diagnostic information can prevent downtime and accelerate the troubleshooting. The first line of defense is alarms which can be announced on a human-machine interface (HMI). Alarms are available on: process variables (e.g., zone 1 high temperature), connected hardware (e.g., wire break on digital output 7 [heater on]) and control devices (e.g., rack 1, module 3 is missing). The goal here will be to collect and in a graphical way show diagnostic messages from industrial network devices. You will have to understand how industrial Ethernet networks are used within the ABB Robot controller and how they are configured in the ABB graphical interface (HMI). The idea is to have a uniform way to collect and store all diagnostic messages per device on the network and be able to present them to the end user in the ABB Engineering tool (HMI). You will also investigate and implement regarding a topology viewer/editor over the local industrial network to be able to present and change the online status for the devices.
• You will live ABB’s core values of safety and integrity, which means taking responsibility for your own actions while caring for your colleagues, and the business.

• Engineering student within Computer Science, Industrial Engineering, Information Technology, System Engineering or other program with similar profile.
• Good knowledge in programming in C/C++ and familiarity with scripting languages.