Control

MERL is seeking a highly motivated intern to collaborate and develop a framework for spatio-temporal monitoring using heterogeneous mobile robots. The work will involve multi-domain research, including multi-agent planning and control, optimization, adaptive and learning-based control, and computer vision. The methods will be implemented and evaluated using physical experiments on robotic platforms (e.g., Crazyflies,Turtlebots). The results of the internship are expected to be published in top-tier conferences and/or journals. The internship will take place during Fall/Winter 2025 (exact dates are flexible) with an expected duration of 4-6 months.

Please use your cover letter to explain how you meet the following requirements, preferably with links to papers, code repositories, etc., indicating your proficiency.

Required Specific Experience

• Current enrollment in a PhD program in Mechanical, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related programs, with a focus on Robotics and/or Control Systems
• Experience in some/all of these topics: multi-agent planning and control, optimization, adaptive and learning-based control, and computer vision
• Experience with ROS2 and validation of algorithms on robotic platforms
• Strong programming skills in Python and/or C/C++

Desired Specific Experience

• Experience with Crazyflie quadrotors and the Crazyswarm2 library
• Experience with cvxpy and/or gurobipy
• Experience in convex optimization and model predictive control
• Experience with computer vision

MERL is looking for a research intern to develop efficient transformer-informed stochastic MPC to control net-zero energy buildings. This is an exciting opportunity to make a real impact in the field of cutting-edge deep learning and predictive control on a real system. Publication of results produced during the internship is desired. The expected duration of the internship is 3-6 months with a flexible start date.

The Ideal Candidate Will Have:

• Significant hands-on experience with stochastic MPC
  • Publications in SMPC are a strong plus
• Fluency in Python and PyTorch
• Understanding of probabilistic time-series prediction
• Experience with convex programming
  • Convex formulations of MPC/SMPC problems are a strong plus
• Completed their MS, or >50% of their PhD program

Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs, Inc. "MERL" provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, MERL complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.

MERL expressly prohibits any form of workplace harassment based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status. Improper interference with the ability of MERL’s employees to perform their job duties may result in discipline up to and including discharge.

Working at MERL requires full authorization to work in the U.S and access to technology, software and other information that is subject to governmental access control restrictions, due to export controls. Employment is conditioned on continued full authorization to work in the U.S and the availability of government authorization for the release of these items, which might include without limitation, obtaining an export license or other documentation. MERL may delay commencement of employment, rescind an offer of employment, terminate employment, and/or modify job responsibilities, compensation, benefits, and/or access to MERL facilities and information systems, as MERL deems appropriate, to ensure practical compliance with applicable employment law and government access control restrictions.

MERL is seeking a motivated graduate student to research methods for state and parameter estimation and optimization of large-scale systems for process applications. Representative applications include large vapor-compression cycles and other multiphysical systems for energy conversion that couple thermodynamic, fluid, and electrical domains. The ideal candidate would have a solid background in control and estimation, numerical methods, and optimization; strong programming skills and experience with Julia/Python/Matlab are also expected. Knowledge of the fundamental physics of thermofluid flows (e.g., thermodynamics, heat transfer, and fluid mechanics), nonlinear dynamics, or equation-oriented languages (Modelica, gPROMS) is a plus. The expected duration of this internship is 3 months.