PhD in robotics, computer science, electrical engineering, aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, or related field with top-tier publications.
Research experience in active perception, informative path planning, vision-language models, or semantic mapping.
Hands-on experience with vision-language or foundation models for robot perception and their physical principles.
Fluency in Python and capability to implement methods on real robots using C++ and ROS 2.
Strong understanding of uncertainty principles, including Bayesian or information-theoretic planning.
Responsibilities
Formulate active perception problems for robot inspection and behaviors.
Develop policies for viewpoint planning to enhance information gathering.
Research confidence calibration and abstention in vision-language reasoning for robots.
Lead research and development efforts through to real-world experiments for feasibility and deployment.
Shape the technical roadmap to align real-world needs with technical advancements.
Mentor junior team members and collaborators.
Benefits
Opportunities for hands-on experience with cutting-edge robotics technology.
Collaborative environment with a focus on mentorship and professional growth.
Engagement in impactful research that translates to real-world applications.
Access to a generous salary range based on individual qualifications and experience.
Full Job Description
What You Will Get To Do
Formulate the active perception problem for inspection and a broad range of robot behaviors
Develop viewpoint planning policies for active information gathering
Research calibrated confidence and abstention for vision-language reasoning on the robot
Own the research and development work through to the real-world experiments that prove feasibility and deployability
Investigate and shape the technical roadmap, aligning real-world needs with technical development
Mentor junior team members and collaborators
What You Have
PhD in robotics, computer science, electrical engineering, aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, or a related field, with publications at top venues such as RSS, CoRL, ICRA, IROS, T-FR, T-RO, CVPR, NeurIPS, or similar.
Research experience in active perception, informative path planning, vision-language models, or semantic mapping for exploration.
Hands-on work with vision-language or foundation models for robot perception, plus the physical principles governing them.
Fluency in Python and the ability to run your methods on real robots with C++ and ROS 2.
A principled fluency with uncertainty: Bayesian or information-theoretic planning, calibration, and conformal methods
What Will Set You Apart
Real-robot experience in the wild
Work on metric-semantic scene graphs, open-vocabulary mapping, or spatio-temporal scene representations.
Experience fine-tuning or deploying compact VLMs on edge computers
Exposure to robotic industrial inspection workflows
Our salary range is generous and we consider each individual's background and experience when determining final compensation. Base pay may vary based on role scope, job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and the Irvine, California market.
