Optical Sensing Intern - Robot Perception

Rhoda AI • Mountain View, CA

2d

About The Position

Rhoda AI is building generalist intelligent robots, developing the robotics stack from hardware and robot systems through infrastructure and foundation world models. The Optical Sensing Intern will evaluate how sensors perform in real warehouse conditions, including bright sunlight, shiny floors, glass, dust, and heat. The internship is hands-on and connects optical physics and experimentation with sensor operation on real robots.

The intern will work directly with perception and hardware engineers. Findings will inform sensor selection, sensor settings, and requirements for detection algorithms. The role is described as an internship or co-op for MS students, lasting 4–6 months and starting as soon as possible.

Requirements

• Pursuing an MS in Optics, Electrical Engineering, Physics, Computer Vision, or Robotics, with research or lab experience designing experiments.
• Strong understanding of optical sensing physics, including image formation, noise, dynamic range, time-of-flight, and LiDAR principles.
• Hands-on experience with cameras, LiDAR, time-of-flight, or other optical sensors in a lab or on a robot.
• Comfort with sensor SDKs, drivers, and configuration.
• Python skills for numerical analysis and image or point-cloud processing, using NumPy, OpenCV, Open3D, or similar tools.
• Curiosity to investigate the cause of sensor problems and creativity in finding fixes.
• Ability to explain results clearly in writing and with plots to people outside the specialty.

Nice To Haves

• Camera or sensor calibration.
• Thermal or infrared imaging.
• Optical modeling or sensor simulation.
• ROS 2 and recorded-data tools.

Responsibilities

• Design experiments to answer engineering questions about sensor settings and performance in different operating conditions.
• Explain sensor failures using optical and physical principles, including ambient light, dynamic range, multipath, reflectance, angle of incidence, and heat.
• Propose and test potential responses to sensor failures, such as changing settings, adding a filter, changing mounting, or implementing a software check.
• Build scenes, targets, and scenarios that reproduce real-world conditions in the lab and, when needed, in the field.
• Use sensor SDKs and firmware to sweep and tune settings such as exposure, gain, frame rate, range modes, and filtering.
• Use Python to process images and point clouds and quantify range, accuracy, noise, and dropout.
• Present findings and recommendations to engineers.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Intern