Motion Planning and Controls Engineer

<h1>Company Overview</h1> <p>Maven Robotics is building the world’s leading general-purpose AI robots.</p> <p>We are currently operating in stealth and are growing the world’s best team in AI robotics. We are looking for self-starters that are the world’s best in their field, who can innovate from a deep understanding of the fundamentals, and who share our values of unwavering truth seeking and integrity, humility, curiosity, and relentless determination.</p> <h1>Role Description</h1> <p>We are looking to recruit an exceptional <strong>Motion Planning &amp; Controls Engineer</strong> to develop the software that brings our robot hardware to life, implementing planning and control algorithms that provide purposeful, performant, safe, reliable, and beautiful coordinated motion.</p> <p>In this role you will:</p> <ul> <li>Cover the entire software stack that governs robot motion, from optimization-based motion planning and control for an overactuated autonomous system, down to individual motor torque control (and everywhere in between).</li> <li>Utilize deep expertise in and intuition for complex, high degree-of-freedom electromechanical systems.</li> <li>Employ a true multi-disciplinary mindset, bridging mechanical, electrical, software, and systems engineering domains to solve real-world problems.</li> <li>Interface with perception, intelligence, simulation, and platform software systems in designing thoughtful functional architectures that ensure world-class overall robot system performance.</li> <li>Have an unrelenting drive to achieve exceptional motion quality via continual test, measurement, analysis, and improvement.</li> </ul> <h1>Qualifications</h1> <p><em>Must-have:</em></p> <ul> <li>MS or PhD in engineering, mathematics, computer science or a related discipline.</li> <li>Experience in optimization-based motion planning and control algorithms such as Model Predictive Control.</li> <li>Experience in control, estimation, modeling, and analysis of complex. multi-degree-of-freedom electromechanical systems, including forward/inverse kinematics, forward/inverse dynamics, and task/joint space control.</li> <li>Practical experience with motor servo control (position/velocity/torque control) architectures and tuning.</li> <li>Proficiency in Python and C++ programming, using up-to-date software development practices and tooling.</li> <li>Self-starter attitude with strong ability to identify problems, prioritize them, then plan and execute working solutions.</li> <li>Enthusiasm for working in a fast paced startup environment and eagerness to support the team on a variety of topics.</li> </ul> <p><em>Nice-to-have:</em></p> <ul> <li>Familiarity with ground vehicle localization, mapping, and state estimation techniques (e.g. SLAM, Kalman filtering).</li> <li>Familiarity with robotic simulation software frameworks/environments.</li> <li>Familiarity with modern approaches to robotic manipulation, including state-of-the-art reinforcement learning (RL) and imitation learning (IL) approaches and their application to real-world robots.</li> <li>Knowledge of brushless motor current control (e.g. field-oriented control).</li> <li>Familiarity with functional safety (FuSa) concepts.</li> </ul>