Co-Op, Robot Perception & State Estimation

Your Impact at LILA

As a Co-Op on the Production Robotics team at Lila Sciences, you will help build the algorithms and software that let our robots know where they are and what they are looking at, so they can run scientific workflows reliably inside the AI Science Factories (AISFs). The team develops the state estimation, perception, and testing infrastructure that general-purpose robotic skills depend on.

Your work will sit at the intersection of estimation, computer vision, and robotics software. You will help improve how our mobile bases estimate their position and motion, develop camera-based detection and localization of AprilTags and lab instruments, and strengthen the simulation-based testing and CI that validate changes before they reach hardware. Expect a mix of writing production-quality software, applying math to real sensor data, and debugging real-world behavior on physical robots.

You will work alongside robotics engineers, AI researchers, and software engineers, with day-to-day support from the Production Robotics team. The output is software that runs in production lab environments and directly accelerates the rate at which Lila can run experiments.

What You'll Be Building

• Fuse multi-sensor data to improve mobile base state estimation
• Build camera-based AprilTag and instrument detection and localization for robot manipulation and navigation
• Develop new robot capabilities in ROS 2 (Jazzy)
• Expand simulation-based tests and CI pipelines so changes are validated before deployment on hardware
• Evaluate estimation and perception performance on real robot data and contribute fixes back to the codebase
• Ship production code alongside robotics, software, and AI engineers
• Document algorithms, test approaches, and integration patterns for the rest of the team

What You'll Need to Succeed

• In-progress Master's (preferred) or strong senior-year Bachelor's in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field, with a controls/estimation leaning
• Proficiency in Python and/or C++, with coursework or project experience writing well-tested code
• Familiarity with state estimation and sensor fusion (e.g., Kalman filtering)
• Strong foundation in linear algebra and probability
• Comfort with Git and Linux development environments
• Strong communication skills and ability to work effectively across a multidisciplinary team
• Available for the full spring co-op term

Bonus Points For

• Experience with ROS 2 (Jazzy preferred) or another robotics framework
• Hands-on experience with camera systems and computer vision (e.g., OpenCV, AprilTags, camera calibration)
• Experience with simulation-based testing and CI (e.g., Gazebo, GitHub Actions)
• Experience integrating software with sensors, actuators, or other physical systems
• Coursework or projects in localization, SLAM, or robot control