Robotics Technologist 3

Wanted:A Robotics TechnologistIIIwith advanced skills inmotion control,planning,state estimation, andmachinelearning, as they apply to robotic systemsfor theRobotic Surface Mobility Group, which is part of theRobotic Mobility and Manipulation Section.

The Robotics section develops, matures, and brings to space flight, robotics technology for in-situ exploration of the solar system. The Section also provides roboticsexpertisefor space flight hardware and software implementation along with mission operations support.

Opportunity:To work with an enthusiastic multi-disciplinary workforce that originates and executes robotics technology development and space flight projects. This role is highly focused on addressing complexmotion control,planning,and state estimationchallenges across various active projects. The candidate willbe responsible fordevelopingcontrols and planningalgorithms, integrating deep learning models, and designing high-level multi-agent planning frameworks to support robotic operations.

What You'll Do

• Design and implement constraint-aware motion planning and controls formulti-agentsystems.

• Apply deep learning forperception-aware stochastic planning.

• Developlow-levelalgorithmsutilizingmodelpredictive control, reinforcement learning, andgrid-basedorsampling-based planning.

• Develophigher-level planningframeworksincorporatingPartially Observable Markov Decision Processes(POMDP)and actionselectionusing Monte Carlo Tree Search.

• Perform robust robot system integration work with the existingROS2-basedrobotsoftware stacks.

• Support field trials to evaluate autonomous navigation of robotic systems.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Mechatronics Engineering, or a related discipline with a minimum of 6 years of relevant experience; aMaster’sdegree in a related discipline with a minimum of 4 years of relevant experience; orPh.D. inarelated discipline with a minimum of 2 years of relevant experience.

• Experiencedevelopinguncertainty-aware motion planning and control systems.

• Demonstratedexpertisein estimation theory,simultaneous localization and mapping, and sensor fusion.

• Proficiencyin multi-agent planning and POMDP decision-making frameworks.

• Strong programmingproficiencyin Python,C, andC++.

• Experiencedeveloping and operatingrobot software stacks usingROS2.

• Experienceoperatingand integrating hardware for robotic field expeditions.

• Strong communications skills and ability to work across teams.

Desired Qualifications

• Familiarity with simulation tools for robotic development such as Gazebo,IsaacSim, orMuJoCo.

• Proficiencywith modern machine learning frameworks (e.g.,PyTorch, TensorFlow) for training and deploying perception and vision models.

• Experience with compute optimization and GPU acceleration (e.g., CUDA,TensorRT) for real-time, onboard robotic processing.

• Familiarity with diverse sensing modalities (e.g., LiDAR, stereo cameras, IMUs) tailored for resource-constrained or GPS-denied environments.

• Experience in continuous integration and rigorous software testing methodologies (e.g., hardware-in-the-loop, software-in-the-loop) for autonomous operations.

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