Robotics Intern, Human-Robot Interaction (HRI)

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 Human-Centered AI, Human Interactive Driving, Energy and Materials, Machine Learning, and Robotics.

This is a Summer 2023 paid 12-week internship opportunity. Please note that this internship will be a hybrid in-office role.

The Team

The Punyo team bridges complementary research and engineering expertise in physical human-robot interaction, soft robotics, humanoid systems, software development, educational & entertainment electronics, planning and controls, learning, and user-centered design. We’re working on highly compliant tactile “ bubble ” sensors and algorithms to put them to human-centered use, and innovating ways to physically support and amplify older adults in a variety of ways such as domestic manipulation skills, contact guarding assistance (think of helping someone up from a chair), affective touch, companionship, and social inclusion.

The Internship

We are looking for an intern researcher to contribute to our Robotics User Experience and Industrial Design (RUX-ID)’s Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) research program in our Cambridge, MA office! In collaboration with our Dexterous Manipulation team members, you will focus on exploring how soft “ bubble ” sensors can be used in designing physical human-robot interactions using learning methods. Every day, you will help to rapidly test new concepts by creating interaction specifications, user flows, and wireframes. You will implement controllers and/or planners that facilitate HRI and continuously develop and run experiments on real hardware that interacts with real people leading to the production of maintainable code and documentation. Lastly, you will have the opportunity to present your study findings to your colleagues and the larger TRI organization. We welcome you to join a positive, friendly, and enthusiastic team of researchers, where your research will contribute to helping people gain independence, access, and mobility.

Qualifications

• Pursuing MS or PhD degree in Human-Robot Interaction, Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors, Robotics, Computer Science, or a related field or equivalent practical experience.
• 2+ years experience as an academic Human-Robot Interaction researcher.
• Experience with at least one of the following: behavior cloning, reinforcement learning, imitation learning, and related.
• Experience with qualitative and quantitative user research, including developing user study materials, IRB application, facilitation and interviewing, management of Personally Identifiable Information (PII), and statistical analysis.
• Strong software engineering skills (C++ / Python preferred) and analysis/debugging autonomous robotic systems.
• Experience with deploying and/or field-servicing prototype technologies.
• Experience with writing peer-reviewed conference papers or journal articles as lead author.
• Desire to contribute back to the robotics community with publications and open source code.
• Familiarity with robotic simulators including Drake, Mujoco, Bullet, etc. and/or original ROS or ROS2.
• Passion for seeing robotics help humans and have a real-world, large-scale impact.

Bonus Qualifications

• Experience in tactile sensing, modeling soft-contact, soft robotics.
• Expertise/Experience in machine learning around user behavioral modeling, adapting to individual user’s preference and preference changes over time.
• Knowledge of optimization and sampling based planners for physical, reactive planning and control, trajectory optimization, coordinated whole-body control.
• System integration experience around complex, open-ended, multi-functional projects.
• Comfortable using Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Xd, Sketch, or a similar for task flows, wireframes, mockups.

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