1 day ago
Responsibilities
- Develop accurate and computationally efficient simulation abstractions for tendon-driven robotic mechanisms.
- Design and execute empirical testing and system-identification protocols to validate simulation models.
- Characterize QDD actuators and tune controls for high-fidelity torque and effort mapping.
- Perform kinematic calibration, inertial parameter identification, and effort-production verification for multi-body robotic hands.
- Own the sim-to-real pipeline, including dynamics engines and domain-randomization strategies for transferring RL policies to hardware.
- Identify sim-to-real bottlenecks and lead technical execution from concept through deployed hardware.
Requirements
- 5+ years of relevant industry or development experience in robotics, controls, or physical simulation for the senior level, with staff-level alternatives of 10+ years with a BS, 8+ years with an MS, or 6+ years with a PhD.
- BS, MS, or PhD in Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field for the senior level; MS or PhD for the staff level.
- Proven experience transferring reinforcement-learning control policies from simulation to physical hardware.
- Deep hands-on experience with control, system identification, and characterization of Quasi-Direct Drive actuators.
- Strong knowledge of rigid multi-body dynamics, kinematic calibration, inertial identification, friction and backlash characterization, and hardware-software discrepancy diagnosis.
- Preferred experience modeling, calibrating, or controlling tendon-driven or cable-driven robotic systems.
- Preferred familiarity with modern reinforcement-learning environments, physics simulators, domain randomization, system-ID-based digital twins, or Actuator Net modeling.
Benefits
- Direct-hire position.
- Work involves prolonged desk and computer work, occasional lifting of up to 15 pounds, and the ability to read screens and communicate.
Categories
Robotics
About Apptronik
Apptronik designs and manufactures AI-enabled humanoid robots, led by its Apollo platform, to automate tasks alongside people in manufacturing and logistics, with potential use in healthcare and homes. The privately held company is headquartered in Austin, Texas, and grew out of the University of Texas at Austin’s Human Centered Robotics Lab; its team previously worked on NASA’s Valkyrie robot. Apptronik’s business model centers on selling robots and the software and services needed to deploy them in industrial environments.