Robotics Engineer - Integration & Control (m/f/d)
Prefiro GmbH · Karlsruhe
Job description
About Prefiro
Asparagus cost up to 25 euros per kilo this season! That’s because, like most of the produce on the shelf, it’s harvested exclusively by hand. Here at Prefiro, we’re the first to automate these processes! We use artificial intelligence, and robotics to bring next-generation agricultural equipment to the field.
Are you excited about applying new technologies in real-world conditions, solving interesting and varied problems, and seeing firsthand the impact your ideas have?
Then join our growing team and help us deliver the first autonomous asparagus harvester to farms.
Your responsibilities
Integrate robots and IO into the robotics stack – from startup and service to error handling and recovery.
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Work on MPC-based trajectory planning and optimal control: from approach to implementation on the robot in real time.
Help optimize cycle times in real-world applications
Scale the stack from one robot module to several per machine: networking, robot setup and calibration.
Tune the robot computers for real-time control: Docker, CPU pinning, ROS 2 scheduling and multithreading.
Build remote access, data collection and robotics CI/CD (e.g. rosbag-playback tests) to improve the robots with real field data.
Review code, contribute to architecture decisions and debug the stack as a team.
Run the robots during pre-season field tests and the harvest season.
What you bring
Master's Degree in robotics, mechatronics, mechanical engineering, computer science, or a related technical field.
At least 2 years of professional experience in robotics, including hands-on work with real robots (not only simulation).
Strong modern C++ (C++17) and Python 3.
Hands-on experience with ROS 2 (ideally Jazzy): nodes, lifecycle nodes, executors, QoS, launch files.
Experience with trajectory controllers and trajectory planning.
Solid grounding in robot kinematics and dynamics (URDF, Pinocchio or similar).
Proven experience with optimal control and model predictive control for trajectory planning; reinforcement learning is a plus.
Comfortable with CMake/colcon builds and Git on Linux.
Experience with real-time robot control and an understanding of soft real-time constraints on Linux (scheduling, latency, threading).
Fluent English , our working language.
Nice to have
Industrial arms, especially Denso SCARA (b-CAP, RC8) or Universal Robots.
Optimal-control frameworks such as acados or CasADi; control barrier functions.
MoveIt 2 or Ruckig for motion planning.
Docker, GitLab CI and automated testing (GoogleTest, launch_testing).
DDS or Zenoh tuning and multi-robot setups.
Debugging tools such as RViz, Foxglove, PlotJuggler or Nsight Systems.
Field deployment with systemd, tmux and shell scripting.
Basic German.
What we offer
Real fields from your first season. Your code runs on our machines on farms in Germany.
Short way from code to robot. New ideas usually run on the real machine within a few days.
A problem worth solving. Green asparagus is still harvested entirely by hand.
A small, motivated team that gets a lot done together. When you join, we're 8 full-time, plus 2 interns and a working student.
Open culture, flat hierarchies. We are still early, so your opinion counts in technical decisions.
Lunch and coffee together in the kitchen in our hall.
Employee stock options.
How to apply
Send your CV and a few lines on a robotics project you built on real hardware (links to code welcome) via the "Apply now" button. Please include your earliest start date, salary expectations and vegetable you want to automate next.
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