Software Engineering Internship, Manipulation
Persona AI Inc2 hours ago
Houston, TX, USAIntern
H1B Sponsor
Responsibilities
- Design and implement dexterous manipulation algorithms for humanoid robots with high-DOF, multi-fingered hands.
- Contribute to perception, grasping, trajectory optimization, motion planning, and control pipelines for precise grasping, dual-arm manipulation, and in-hand manipulation.
- Implement and test force/motion control and visual/tactile servoing strategies.
- Integrate manipulation components into whole-body controllers and loco-manipulation systems.
- Build and iterate on digital-twin simulation environments using robotics simulators.
- Design, run, and analyze tests in simulated and real-world environments.
- Partner with the machine learning team to train and deploy models for advanced manipulation tasks.
- Monitor manipulation research and bring relevant traditional and deep learning ideas to the team.
Requirements
- Currently pursuing a BS, MS, or PhD in Robotics, Computer Science, Mechanical/Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
- Coursework, lab research, or project experience involving control and manipulation of robotic or humanoid arms.
- Foundational knowledge of motion planning, control theory, and optimization.
- Programming proficiency in C++ and/or Python.
- Exposure to robotics libraries or tools such as ROS, MoveIt!, Drake, or OpenRAVE.
- Familiarity with deep learning fundamentals applied to robotics or manipulation.
- Exposure to computer vision concepts including sensors, point clouds, segmentation, and object detection.
- Preferred: experience with contact modeling, force/torque estimation, or tactile sensing for dexterous tasks.
- Preferred: machine learning experience for dexterous manipulation, including learning-based grasp strategies, behavior cloning, or reinforcement learning.
- Preferred: published research related to manipulation.
- Preferred: prior internship or hands-on experience in a robotics, autonomy, or hardware startup environment.
Benefits
- Full-time internship term opportunities in Fall 2026, Spring 2027, and Summer 2027 cohorts.
- Houston, Texas location with required on-site work.
- One-on-one mentorship from a senior engineer.
- Intern group lunches, company-wide learning lunches, and team activities.
- Internship cohort dates are August–December 2026, January–May 2027, and May–August 2027.