Internship Openings

MERL is seeking a motivated intern to design and implement embedded controllers in C/C++ for a Linux-based experimental process control platform. The intern will develop firmware for STM32 and Arduino microcontrollers, integrate motor drivers and related sensors and actuators, and connect embedded components to the APIs and communication interfaces of existing tools. The work combines hands-on embedded development with system integration and experimental validation. Applicants should have a strong background and demonstrable experience in designing and implementing embedded systems using robust and maintanable software practices. Applicants should be MS or PhD students, and the expected duration of the internship is 3-6 months with a flexible start date.

Required Specific Experience

• Strong C/C++ programming skills and hands-on experience developing firmware for microcontrollers, preferably STM32 and/or Arduino-compatible devices.

• Experience with embedded peripherals and protocols such as PWM, ADC, timers, interrupts, UART, SPI, I²C, and/or CAN.

• Demonstrated attention to software engineering practices, including readability, maintainability, testing, and documentation.

The pay range for this internship position will be 6-8K per month.

MERL is seeking a highly motivated and qualified intern to conduct research on decentralized data assimilation for multi-physical and multi-component systems governed by large-scale nonlinear differential-algebraic equations (DAEs). The research will focus on the study, development, and efficient implementation of data assimilation algorithms for such complex systems. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in one or more of the following areas: nonlinear estimation and control, Bayesian methods, machine learning, graph theory, and optimization, with demonstrated expertise through peer-reviewed publications or equivalent experience. Proficiency in Julia or Python programming is required. Senior Ph.D. students in mechanical, electrical, chemical engineering, or related fields are encouraged to apply. The internship is typically 3 months in duration, with a flexible start date.

The pay range for this internship position will be 6-8K per month.

Join our cutting-edge research team to help advance the next generation of Embodied AI and Humanoid Robotics. As a research intern, you will develop AI technologies that enable humanoid robots to understand, reason, and interact with the physical world through complex manipulation, assembly, and tool-use tasks. This is a unique opportunity to contribute to impactful research with the goal of publishing at leading AI and robotics conferences.

What You'll Work On

Depending on your background and interests, projects may include:

• Embodied AI for dexterous manipulation, assembly, and tool use
• Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models and Foundation Models for robotic control
• World-Action Models (WAM) for long-horizon planning and decision making
• Learning from human demonstrations, teleoperation, and autonomous data collection
• Sim-to-real transfer, reinforcement learning, and real-world robot deployment

What We're Looking For

We are seeking highly motivated graduate students with:

• Strong research experience in robotics, embodied AI, machine learning, computer vision, or related fields
• Experience with deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch or JAX, and strong Python programming skills
• Familiarity with one or more of the following:
  • Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models
  • Foundation Models or multimodal AI
  • Reinforcement learning or imitation learning
  • Robot manipulation, motion planning, or control
  • Agentic AI systems for robotics

Preferred qualifications:

• Hands-on experience with humanoid or loco manipulators (e.g., Unitree G1)
• Experience with teleoperation systems (e.g., Pico, Sonic)
• Experience with robotics simulators (e.g., Isaac Sim, MuJoCo, Genesis)
• Familiarity with ROS/ROS 2 and real-world robot experimentation
• Familiarity with policy deployment on edge AI devices (e.g., Jetson GPUs)

Internship Details

• Duration: Approximately 4 months
• Start Date: Flexible
• Location: Cambridge, MA
• Objective: Conduct high-impact research leading to publications at premier AI and robotics conferences (e.g., CoRL, RSS, ICRA, IROS, NeurIPS, ICML)

If you are excited about building AI that enables robots to perform complex real-world tasks—including assembly, tool use, and dexterous manipulation—we encourage you to apply.

The pay range for this internship position will be 6-8K per month.

MERL is seeking a highly motivated graduate student to develop high-fidelity full-stack GNC simulators for space applications. The ideal candidate has strong experience with rendering engines, synthetic image generation, and computer vision, as well as familiarity with spacecraft dynamics, motion planning, and state estimation. The developed software should allow for closed-loop execution with the synthetic imagery, and ideally allow for real-time visualization. Publication of results produced during the internship is desired. The expected duration of the internship is 3-6 months with a flexible start date.

Required Specific Experience

• Current enrollment in a graduate program in Aerospace, Computer Science, Robotics, Mechanical, Electrical Engineering, or a related field

• Experience with one or more of Blender, Unreal, Unity, along with their APIs

• Strong programming skills in one or more of Matlab, Python, and/or C/C++

The pay range for this internship position will be6-8K per month.

MERL is seeking a highly motivated intern to collaborate on the development and experimental validation of algorithms for heterogeneous mobile robot autonomy. The internship will involve hands-on work with multiple robotic platforms, including aerial robots and ground robots. The ideal candidate should be comfortable working close to hardware and should have substantial experience with ROS2-based robotic systems, Python development, sensor integration, debugging physical experiments, and deploying algorithms on real robots. The intern will contribute to one or more research directions involving perception-driven autonomy, multi-robot planning, and heterogeneous robot coordination. The results of the internship are expected to lead to publications in top-tier robotics, control, automation, and/or computer vision conferences and/or journals. The internship will take begin in November/December 2026 and continue for 4–6 months, with exact dates flexible. Please use your cover letter to explain how you meet the following requirements. Where possible, include links to papers, code repositories, hardware demonstrations, videos, project pages, or prior experimental work that demonstrate your experience.

Required Specific Experience

• Current enrollment in a Masters/PhD program in Mechanical, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related programs, with a focus on Robotics and/or Control Systems.
• Strong hands-on experience with robotic hardware and physical experiments.
• Experience in one or more of the following topics: multi-agent planning and control, perception, computer vision, optimization and operation research (vehicle routing and scheduling).
• Experience with one or more of ROS2-enabled mobile robots, preferably Starling drones, Crazyflie drones, TurtleBot / TurtleBot4 platforms, and/or Unitree Go2.
• Strong programming skills in Python and/or C/C++.

Desired Specific Experience

• Experience with image-based 3D reconstruction, structure from motion, visual SLAM, visual odometry, multi-view geometry, or photogrammetry.
• Experience with multi-robot coordination, heterogeneous robot teams, task allocation, dynamic team formation, coverage, monitoring, or task completion.
• Experience with motion planning, trajectory optimization, model predictive control, convex optimization, or mixed-integer optimization.

The pay range for this internship position will be 6-8K per month.

MERL is seeking a highly motivated Ph.D. student to conduct research on foundation models for humanoid robot loco-manipulation in factory automation, with a focus on understanding their capabilities, limitations, safety, and robustness. The internship will focus on developing humanoid systems for material handling tasks such as box/cart transportation, kitting, tool manipulation, failure recovery, and other mobile manipulation tasks in warehouse and manufacturing environments. The intern will collaborate closely with MERL researchers to develop novel algorithms that integrate Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models, world models, and robot control for robust long-horizon manipulation on real humanoid platforms. Successful candidates should have demonstrated research experience in embodied AI, robot learning, or computer vision, with the goal of publishing at leading robotics and AI conferences. Start date and duration is flexible.

Required Specific Experience

• Current enrollment in a Ph.D. program in Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
• Hands-on research experience with Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models and/or multimodal foundation models for robotics.
• Research experience with world models for robotic planning, prediction, or decision making.
• Sim-to-real transfer and robotic simulation (Isaac Lab, MuJoCo.).
• Strong publication record or demonstrated research potential in robotics, embodied AI, computer vision, or machine learning. Must have some publications in top robotic or AI conferences / journals (e.g., RSS, ICRA, T-RO, RA-L, NeurIPS, ICML etc).

Desired Experience

• Contact-rich manipulation and force-controlled manipulation.
• Whole-body control for humanoid robots.
• Dexterous manipulation or bimanual manipulation.
• Reinforcement learning or imitation learning for robotics.
• Robot perception, 3D vision, or state estimation.
• Sim-to-real transfer and robotic simulation (Isaac Lab, MuJoCo).
• Experience deploying algorithms on humanoid platforms.

The pay range for this internship position will be 6-8K per month.