Robotics Intern - Prototyping and Research Operations

At Toyota Research Institute (TRI), we’re on a mission to improve the quality of human life. We’re developing new tools and capabilities to amplify the human experience. To lead this transformative shift in mobility, we’ve built a world-class team in Energy & Materials, Human-Centered AI, Human Interactive Driving, and Robotics.

This is a summer 2025 paid 12-week internship opportunity. Please note that this internship will be an in-office role.

The Team

The Prototyping and Research Operations (PROps) team supports and operationalizes TRI’s robotics research to succeed at scale in laboratory and deployment environments. We work across engineering and operations disciplines to develop robot hardware and testing setups, as well as operate and deploy robotic research systems to collect data for researchers. Our team administers the two prototyping laboratories within TRI and uses those facilities to prototype research hardware. 

The Internship

The intern who joins our team will have the opportunity to contribute to the work of our various research support projects and the daily tasks that keep our researchers productive and will focus on three areas: 

- Maintaining and improving the lab: This will include working with the lab manager on organizational tasks, fulfilling fabrication requests, maintaining and fixing the manufacturing equipment and robot systems, and improving lab workflow and tooling, allowing for more efficient use of the lab space. 

- Supporting our operations projects: This will require our intern to collaborate with Research Operations Engineers to design and coordinate events, improve data collection processes, and maintain testing and deployment documentation to support the research and engineering teams.

- A design project that will consist of modeling components in Onshape, running a design review, manufacturing and iterating prototypes in the lab, sending the final design to a vendor for fabrication, delivering a final assembly, and documenting the project so the design cycle is transparent and the design can be replicated.

• Engineering student (undergrad junior or senior or a master’s student).
• A drive to learn new skills and become adept at new systems, processes, and tools.
• Experience with rapid prototyping tools (3D printers, laser cutters, hand tools,  etc.. ) and time spent in a lab environment designing, prototyping, and manufacturing components and assemblies.
• Experience in creative and novel mechanical design work and employing rapid prototyping techniques to improve your iterative design process. 
• Familiarity with CAD and the ability to use it as a central component of the design cycle.
• A safety-first mentality.
• Experience executing and summarizing system tests and results.
• Demonstrable communication skills, written and verbal, including utilization of design documents and systems drawings.

• Electronic assembly skills like crimping, soldering, and wire routing.  
• Basic machining skills on a lathe or mill.
• Experience designing for small-scale contract manufacturing and assembly.
• Understand software development processes and the tooling required to enact them, such as version control (e.g., Git) and CI/ CD (e.g., Jenkins).

Please add a link to Google Scholar and include a full list of publications when submitting your CV to this position.

The pay range for this position at commencement of employment is expected to be between $45 and $65/hour for California-based roles; however, base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Note that TRI offers a generous benefits package including vacation and sick time. Details of participation in these benefit plans will be provided if an employee receives an offer of employment.

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TRI is fueled by a diverse and inclusive community of people with unique backgrounds, education and life experiences. We are dedicated to fostering an innovative and collaborative environment by living the values that are an essential part of our culture. We believe diversity makes us stronger and are proud to provide Equal Employment Opportunity for all, without regard to an applicant’s race, color, creed, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, religion, marital status, genetic information, veteran status, or any other status protected under federal, state or local laws.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment.