What are the responsibilities and job description for the Robotics Navigation and Controls Engineer position at Luminous?
About Luminous:
We’re in a unique point in time where the demand from decarbonization and AI data centers have required the world to scale energy infrastructure at rates never seen before in the history of humanity. Luminous Robotics, Inc. addresses this generational problem through flexible, physical AI robot fleets for construction and operations of solar energy infrastructure. We are a fast moving startup having established ourselves as a leader in solar automation. Within the past 12 months, Luminous has developed three generations of LUMI robots and brought online clean energy for thousands of homes in the U.S. — the company is now scaling into large scale commercial fleet deployments.
About the Role:
We are seeking a highly motivated and skilled Robot Navigation and Controls Engineer to join our dynamic team. You will be responsible for the design, development, and implementation of advanced navigation and control systems for our outdoor mobile robot platform. This role requires a strong understanding of robotics principles, sensor fusion, path planning algorithms, and control theory, with a particular emphasis on planning, controls, and optimization. Experience with mapping techniques is considered a valuable bonus.
Responsibilities:
- Design and develop the robot's navigation stack, including global and local path planning, obstacle avoidance, and localization strategies.
- Select and integrate appropriate sensors (GPS, LiDAR, radar, IMU, encoders, cameras) to achieve robust and accurate navigation and perception. Implement sensor fusion algorithms (e.g., Kalman filters, particle filters) to combine data from multiple sensors for improved accuracy and reliability of the robot's state estimation.
- Develop and implement control algorithms to ensure the robot accurately follows planned paths and exhibits desired behaviors, while optimizing navigation and control systems for performance, efficiency, and robustness across diverse outdoor environments.
- Implement and test the navigation and control software on the robot platform.
- Troubleshoot and debug issues related to navigation and control systems.
- Document the design, implementation, and testing of the navigation and control software.
- Collaborate with other engineers on the robotics team.
- (Bonus) Experience with robot mapping techniques (e.g., SLAM) and map generation.
Skills and Qualifications:
- Strong understanding of robotics principles, including kinematics, dynamics, and control theory
- Experience working with multi-modal sensors such as GPS, Radar, IMU, Lidar, and Cameras in robotic applications..
- Experience with sensor fusion techniques and state estimation.
- Proficiency in path planning algorithms (global and local).
- Experience in implementing control algorithms for mobile robots.
- Strong programming skills in C
- Experience with robotics software frameworks such as ROS or ROS2.
- Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills.
- Strong communication and teamwork abilities.
- (Bonus) Experience with mapping and SLAM algorithms.
