Robotics Intern, Human-Machine Interaction Research

Toyota Research Institute•Los Altos, CA

5d•Hybrid

About The Position

Toyota Research Institute is hiring a paid 12-week summer research intern for its Human-Machine Interaction Research group. This hybrid, in-office role focuses on developing and evaluating interactions with quadruped robots and other embodied AI systems. The intern will prototype integrated systems, collect and analyze human-participant data, build interaction-logic models, conduct user studies, develop robot policies that adapt to people, and deploy and evaluate approaches on robot hardware. The team designs, develops, and evaluates human-centered interfaces intended to improve the safety, well-being, and task performance of people using AI. Its work explores how people interact with intelligent systems and how humans and AI can collaborate effectively in physical tasks and other real-world contexts. The intern will work with a multidisciplinary team and communicate research findings in presentations and written reports, potentially for submission to leading international research venues.

Requirements

Currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, Robotics, Machine Learning, Cognitive Science, or a related field.
Experience developing and prototyping interactive or embodied AI systems, such as interactive robots, multimodal assistants, or conversational agents.
Familiarity with human-robot interaction, human-AI interaction, or human behavior modeling.
Experience with experimental design, user studies, and quantitative or qualitative data analysis.
Ability to work independently, iterate quickly, and communicate research findings clearly.

Responsibilities

Design and develop prototypes that enable embodied AI agents to support people collaborating on physical tasks.
Use multimodal AI to understand human activities, task progress, and collaborative interactions.
Develop and evaluate interaction strategies that adapt AI assistance to different contexts and collaborative situations.
Integrate AI models and interaction logic with robotic hardware to support real-time human-robot interaction.
Design and conduct user studies on how AI assistance affects human collaboration, task performance, and user experience.
Collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data to evaluate system effectiveness and identify opportunities for improvement.
Collaborate with research scientists and engineers across Toyota Research Institute.
Communicate research findings through presentations and written reports, including potential submissions to leading international research venues.