Master Thesis - Control Architecture for X-in-1 Power Electronics
Eskilstuna, SE, 405 08
Transport is at the core of modern society. Imagine using your expertise to shape sustainable transport and infrastructure solutions for the future. If you seek to make a difference on a global scale, working with next-gen technologies and the sharpest collaborative teams, then we could be a perfect match.
The Opportunity
Research challenge: How can heterogeneous MCU resources safely control configurable power stages while enabling faster software evolution. This thesis will develop an adaptive embedded software architecture for electric construction machines using heterogeneous multicore MCUs. It will examine how general-purpose, lockstep safety, specialized control, communication, security, and AI resources can support an integrated X-in-1 power-electronics system while maintaining deterministic behavior, functional safety, freedom from interference, and scalability.
The proposed architecture separates a stable, verified safety platform, covering supervision, critical states, interlocks, and diagnostics, from a feature layer that can evolve more frequently. The study will assess whether strong hardware and software partitioning can reduce repeated verification and certification effort without weakening the safety case.
The thesis will compare architecture using dedicated power devices with alternatives using one or two reconfigurable power stages for EMD, OBC, DC/DC, and work functions. It will determine how MCU cores, peripherals, memory, and accelerators should be allocated for each hardware configuration and operating mode.
Key Research Questions
- How should general purpose, lockstep safety, and specialized processing resources be assigned across integrated power-electronics functions?
- Which software functions belong in the stable safety-critical platform, and which can remain in an independently evolving feature layer?
- Which hardware and software isolation mechanisms are required to preserve timing, memory protection, freedom from interference, and the safety case across releases?
- How should resource allocation change between dedicated and reconfigurable power-stage architectures?
- Can resource allocation adapt safely when the same power stage changes between EMD, OBC, DC/DC, or work-function operation?
- Which functions require high-rate deterministic execution on specialized cores, and which can execute on general-purpose cores?
- How can updates to the feature layer be released faster while limiting regression, verification, and recertification effort?
- Where available, can an NPU support bounded online calibration or adaptation with measurable benefits and without affecting safety-critical real-time behavior?
- What are the trade-offs among utilization, performance, safety, availability, software complexity, cost, and development effort?
Who are you?
We are looking for a team of two students with knowledge and interest of Power electronics and embedded control. You are curious, open-minded and are interested in collaborating across different areas and with people with another background than yourself. During the master thesis you are mainly located at our office in Eskilstuna. The recruitment process will be on going and the positions can be filled before the application time has expired.
Suitable Background: Master students in Electrical Engineering, Control Engineering, Mechatronics, Embedded systems Engineering or similar
Thesis Level: Master
Language: English
Last day to apply: 30 November
Starting Date: Early 2027
Number of Students: 2
For further information, please contact:
Henrik Berghäll, Head of Electrical Distribution, henrik.berghall@volvo.com, phone +46 700034694
George Jithin Babu, Electromobility SW Architect, george.jithin.babu@volvo.com, +46 760092204
Volvo Construction Equipment | CE40840
63185 Eskilstuna | Sweden
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Who we are and what we believe in
We are committed to shaping the future landscape of efficient, safe, and sustainable transport solutions. Fulfilling our mission creates countless career opportunities for talents across the group’s leading brands and entities.
Applying to this job offers you the opportunity to join Volvo Group. Every day, you will be working with some of the sharpest and most creative brains in our field to be able to leave our society in better shape for the next generation. We are passionate about what we do, and we thrive on teamwork. We are almost 100,000 people united around the world by a culture of care, inclusiveness, and empowerment.
Part of Volvo Group, Volvo Construction Equipment is a global company driven by our purpose to build the world we want to live in. Together we develop and deliver solutions for a cleaner, smarter, and more connected world. By unleashing everyone’s full potential, we build a more sustainable future for all our stakeholders. Come join our team and help us build a better tomorrow.