Motion Planning and Controls Engineer

Job description

# Company Overview Maven Robotics is building the world’s leading general-purpose AI robots. 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. # Role Description We are looking to recruit an exceptional **Motion Planning & Controls Engineer** 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. In this role you will: - 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). - Utilize deep expertise in and intuition for complex, high degree-of-freedom electromechanical systems. - Employ a true multi-disciplinary mindset, bridging mechanical, electrical, software, and systems engineering domains to solve real-world problems. - Interface with perception, intelligence, simulation, and platform software systems in designing thoughtful functional architectures that ensure world-class overall robot system performance. - Have an unrelenting drive to achieve exceptional motion quality via continual test, measurement, analysis, and improvement. # Qualifications *Must-have:* - MS or PhD in engineering, mathematics, computer science or a related discipline. - Experience in optimization-based motion planning and control algorithms such as Model Predictive Control. - 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. - Practical experience with motor servo control (position/velocity/torque control) architectures and tuning. - Proficiency in Python and C++ programming, using up-to-date software development practices and tooling. - Self-starter attitude with strong ability to identify problems, prioritize them, then plan and execute working solutions. - Enthusiasm for working in a fast paced startup environment and eagerness to support the team on a variety of topics. *Nice-to-have:* - Familiarity with ground vehicle localization, mapping, and state estimation techniques (e.g. SLAM, Kalman filtering). - Familiarity with robotic simulation software frameworks/environments. - 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. - Knowledge of brushless motor current control (e.g. field-oriented control). - Familiarity with functional safety (FuSa) concepts.