Robotics & Mechatronics Engineer

Location: Calgary

Department: Engineering

Location Type: HYBRID

Employment Type: FULL_TIME

Role Overview 

Key Responsibilities 

• Design and tune PID control loops for stability, responsiveness, and robustness across flight conditions. 
• Define control objectives and performance metrics tied to safety and spray accuracy. 
• Develop control logic that accounts for real-world disturbances, saturation, delays, and sensor noise. 
• Support integration of control algorithms into embedded implementations in partnership with firmware teams. 

• Build dynamic models of the platform and subsystems (actuators, sensors, airframe responses) to inform control design. 
• Perform stability analysis using frequency-domain techniques (e.g., Bode plots) and converge on stable operating regions. 
• Develop and validate sensor/estimation assumptions (rate limits, latency, noise characteristics, update timing). 
• Use MATLAB or another scripting language to prototype and evaluate control loops and tuning approaches. 
• Document modeling assumptions, control architectures, and tuning rationale for repeatable engineering decisions. 

• Build and run simulations (including dynamic simulation) to validate control strategies before field deployment. 
• Design test plans for tuning and validation, including step responses, frequency sweeps, and disturbance testing. 
• Support field testing and iterative tuning under agricultural environments (shock, vibration, wind, dust). 
• Analyze test data to identify instabilities, coupling effects, and performance bottlenecks; implement improvements quickly. 

• Work closely with Embedded Engineers to ensure real-time constraints, sensor timing, and implementation details match control intent. 
• Collaborate with Mechanical and Electrical teams to align actuator/sensor selections and physical constraints with stability needs.  

Relevant Experience 

• 3–6 years of controls engineering experience with demonstrated ownership of modeling and tuning work. 
• Strong foundation in system dynamics, control theory, and stability analysis (time and frequency domain). 
• Experience with MATLAB (or equivalent) for control prototyping, simulation, and analysis. 
• Experience modeling dynamic systems and translating models into practical control implementations (i.e. System ID or similar hardware characterization techniques) 
• Background in agtech, automotive, aerospace, robotics, or other vibration/shock-heavy platforms. 

What You Bring 

• Excitement to dive deep: you’re curious, rigorous, and motivated to converge on stable real-world behavior. 
• Low-ego collaboration style: you partner well across disciplines and focus on outcomes over credit. 
• Ability to translate math and theory into practical engineering decisions and repeatable tuning processes. 
• Strong communication skills for cross-functional collaboration. 
• Willingness to travel 5-10% for field deployments and integration tests 

Bonus 

• Experience tuning controls on real vehicles (UAVs, automotive, aerospace, agricultural equipment). 
• Experience with state estimation / sensor fusion concepts (even if not your primary ownership). 
• Experience with real-time implementation constraints and embedded integration workflows. 
• Comfort analyzing large test datasets and building repeatable analysis scripts. 
• Experience working on safety-critical or high-reliability systems. 
• Competition or Open Source Team Experience