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Hardware integration engineer

Job offer in pdf format

Contract type : Fixed-term contract

Level of qualifications required : Graduate degree or equivalent

Other valued qualifications : Master in Robotics/Mechatronics

Fonction : Temporary scientific engineer

Level of experience : From 3 to 5 years

About the research centre or Inria department

The Inria Université Côte d'Azur center counts 37 research teams as well as 8 support services. The center's staff (about 500 people) is made up of scientists of different nationalities, engineers, technicians and administrative staff. The majority of the center's research teams are located in Sophia Antipolis and five of them are based in an Inria antenna in Montpellier. The Inria branch in Montpellier is growing in size, in accordance with the strategy described in the institution's Contract of Objectives and Performance (COP).

Context

The ACENTAURI research team (https://team.inria.fr/acentauri/), located in the Inria Center of the Côte d'Azur University in Sophia-Antipolis, is offering different robotics engineer positions working in a team for the coming years.

ACENTAURI is a robotics team that studies and develops autonomous and intelligent robots that collaborate with each other to perform difficult tasks in complex and dynamic environments.

The team addresses perception, decision and control problems for multi-robot collaboration by proposing an original hybrid approach to artificial intelligence based on models and data and by studying efficient algorithms. The team focuses on applications such as multi-robot patrol systems for environmental monitoring and transporting people and goods. In these applications, several robots share multi-sensor information possibly coming from the infrastructure.

The effectiveness of the proposed approaches is demonstrated on real robotic systems such as cars and drones in collaboration with industrial partners.

 

Within the Framework of the European project Agrifood-TEF (01/01/2023-31/12/2028), INRIA-ACENTAURI is working to set up a Living Lab (Mobile Laboratory) in order to deliver on site services for SMEs or farmers. The project is organized with different national nodes and satellites. Inria belongs to the french national node.

The first two years of the project will focus on the setup of the system and services, while the three remaining years will be used to provide and maintain services.

The Living Lab will contain a multi-robot platform composed of aerial drones and autonomous ground robots that communicates with each other. All the robots will be equipped with dedicated sensors for navigation and for the dedicated uses cases of SMEs or farmers.

The complete system will be able to:

  • Register and georeference cameras data, Lidar data, and specific sensors data
  • Perform mapping of the environment
  • Monitor the progress of the task from the Living Lab
  • Process data in the living Lab using AI based techniques (Model based, Data based and Hybrid based)

INRIA Acentauri is looking to setup a team of engineers in this aim, composed by:

  • one experienced engineer also assuming the role of project manager
  • one hardware integration engineer
  • one software integration engineer
  • two engineers developing robotics applications to setup services

As a whole, the team will have to cover a wide area of requirements :

  • Robotic hardware and software integration and validation (robots and sensors)
  • Autonomy in energy (charging, recharging and monitoring) (robots and living Lab)
  • Environment representation (3D Mapping)
  • Localization, Planning and control of robots (AGV and UAV)
  • Georeferencing and timestamping of datasets (RTK-GPS, Cameras, Lidar, ....)
  • Communication (Wifi, 5G, 802.11, ...)
  • IHM and monitoring
  • Cybersecurity and network management
  • Mechanical design and prototyping (3D printing)
  • Project and services management (reporting, meetings, planning, scheduling)
  • Car driver licence
  • UAV control (Telepilot)

Travel: Travel is expected for system development, data acquisition and on site services.

Assignment

The missions entrusted to the hardware integration engineer will mainly be the following:

  • Integration of robots (AGV, UAV)
  • Integration (mechanical, electrical, drivers (ROS1/ROS2)), synchronisation and calibration of sensors (RTK-GPS, Cameras, Lidars, IMU, …)
  • R2R (robot to robot) and R2LV (robot to Living Lab) communications
  • Support for the integration of dedicated sensors
  • Integration of communication in the robots
  • Develop safety modules in presence of obstacles
  • Teleoperation robots
  • Customisation of the living LAb

Collaboration : The candidate will therefore work in close collaboration with the Agrifood-TEF engineers team, doctoral students and post-docs of the team.

Responsibilities: The candidate will have to integrate into the ACENTAURI engineering team and participate in the animation of the projects. In addition, he (she) will have to perform the important tasks of communication, report writing, and methodology implemented in ACENTAURI (project monitoring and project management under Git and Gitlab)

Main activities

  • Analyze the users needs
  • Propose solutions
  • Develop programs/ applications/ interfaces
  • Design sensors mechanical sockets
  • Write documentation

Complementary activities:

  • Write the reports
  • Write meeting minutes
  • Test, modify until validated

 

Skills

Technical skills and level required:

The candidate should preferably have obtained a PhD in Robotics or an engineering degree with an already proved experience (at least 3 years). The candidate must have a solid foundation in  mechanical design, in electronics and software development (Matlab, C/C++, Python, Git, OpenCL, CMAKE, ROS1, ROS2, ...).

Languages:

a good level in English read/written/spoken is expected.

Interpersonal skills:

The candidate will be in contact with the members of the team and will have to integrate into the ACENTAURI engineering team. He/she must have the appropriate relational qualities.

Additional skills appreciated:

The car driven licence and the drone remote control licence are a plus, if necessary these licence will have to be passed within the first three months of the contract.

He/she must also be highly motivated for multidisciplinary studies and all aspects of R&D ranging from fundamental to experimental work.

Benefits package

  • Subsidized meals
  • Partial reimbursement of public transport costs
  • Leave: 7 weeks of annual leave + 10 extra days off due to RTT (statutory reduction in working hours) + possibility of exceptional leave (sick children, moving home, etc.)
  • Possibility of teleworking (after 6 months of employment) and flexible organization of working hours
  • Professional equipment available (videoconferencing, loan of computer equipment, etc.)
  • Social, cultural and sports events and activities
  • Access to vocational training
  • Social security coverage

Remuneration

From 2652 € gross monthly (according to degree and experience)