Manager, Robot Motion Planning

Svaya Robotics works at the cutting edge of embodied-AI robotics, with commercially deployed collaborative and bimanual humanoid robots operating alongside humans across demanding production setups. With our vertically integrated approach, spanning the entire robotics stack, we're tackling toughest challenges in precision manipulation and safety, pioneering a new approach to automation – your work your way enabling flexible, scalable and resilient automation in any production setup.

Today our mission applies to manufacturing, but it is much broader than that. We envision a future where everything that needs demanding physical work will be done by human-centered robots with responsive autonomy capabilities operating across factories, logistics, warehouses and healthcare enhancing human potential and our team driven by unwavering passion is paving the way to that future!

About The Role

Svaya Robotics is adding a Manager, Robot Motion Planning, based in Hyderabad, India, you will lead development and implementation of motion planning stack across our collaborative and bimanual humanoid robots. You will drive development of efficient motion planning and control algorithms across manipulation, grasping and whole-body control. Working alongside controls and perception teams, you will drive the team to tackle some of toughest challenges faced in deployment, making robots adapt to real world dynamic constraints, task variations and environment uncertainty with utmost reliability. You will collaborate closely with hardware and software teams to deploy motion planning stack on robot on-board computer and drive integration with robot data and model (digital-twin) for robust fault detection, diagnostics and recovery. You will train and mentor engineers, establish best practices and work with field engineers to address deployment challenges and continuously improve system capabilities and performance. The ideal candidate will have solid background in robot kinematics and dynamics with demonstrated experience implementing novel algorithms in production robotic systems.

About The Work

• Lead development and deployment of collision free motion planning algorithms for manipulation and grasping on robotic manipulators (6 & 7 Axis) and bimanual humanoid robots
• Design and implement novel algorithms for whole body control to enable robots to adapt and recover in real-world deployments
• Work closely with controls, perception and RL teams to develop and deploy robust autonomic stack in loco-manipulation and grasping
• Drive robot safety to enable safe co-working alongside humans in different environments
• Collaborate with engineers from other disciplines and communicate design and technology priorities with constructive guidance to evolve a robust and reliable robot platform
• Train and mentor team members to effectively contribute towards successful execution of product milestones and timelines
  
  

About You

• 6+ years proven experience developing and implementing novel motion planning and trajectory optimization algorithms on robotic systems
• Deep understanding of robotics fundaments in kinematics, dynamics and controls
• Strong skills in C++, multi-threaded programming and high-performance optimization for real-time robotics applications
• Deep mathematical foundation in numerical optimization techniques, including convex and non-convex problem-solving methods
• Experience in applying model predictive control (MPC), data-driven motion optimization and successfully implementing them in production code
• Knowledge and experience working with ROS, MoveIt is a plus
• A learning mindset with willingness to take on new challenges and solve unfamiliar problems.
• Sound technical judgement balancing innovation with development timelines and constraints, paired with clear communication across cross-functional teams on development priorities
  
  

Nice to Have's

• Experience with combined planning of locomotion and manipulation
• Experience with task and motion planning under uncertainty
• Experience with perception and scene understanding as it pertains to motion planning
• Experience with floating-base dynamics, contact/friction/constraint modeling, or sensor fusion
  
  

Education

MS / MTech (or higher) with specialization in robot motion planning, control and learning or Related Field.