Ai and Robotics (GPS-denied navigation stack for UAVs)

Company: PhoQtek Labs Private Limited

Location: Hyderabad (On-site)

Start Date: Immediate

About the Role

You will work on building and validating the GPS-denied navigation stack for GarudaNAV, PhoQtek visual navigation system for autonomous drones. This includes VIO, SLAM, sensor fusion, and integrating perception outputs into flight control systems. As a startup, we also value candidates who can contribute across software, hardware, testing, and rapid prototyping.

Core Responsibilities

GPS - Denied Navigation Development

• Implement, test, and tune Visual–Inertial Odometry (VIO) pipelines

• Develop visual navigation and SLAM systems (ORB-SLAM, VINS-Fusion,

SVO, etc.)

• Work on sensor fusion (IMU + Camera + Barometer + optical flow)

• Build pipelines for monocular/stereo/depth camera–based navigation

• Optimize perception models for Jetson Orin Nano/NX

• Integrate navigation outputs into PX4/ArduPilot for autonomous flight

• Debug real-world issues in GPS-denied flight environments

Startup-Environment Contributions

• Support hardware integration: Jetson setup, camera rigs, sensor

calibration

• Assist during indoor/outdoor flight tests and dataset collection

• Maintain documentation, experiments, logs, and test results

• Work with robotics engineers on rapid prototyping and quick iterations

• • Help in simulation setups (Gazebo / Air Sim / PX4-SITL) when required

Required Skills

• Strong fundamentals in CV / Robotics / State Estimation

• Hands-on experience with any VIO or SLAM framework

• Python and/or C++ proficiency

• Understanding of IMU processing, feature tracking, and pose estimation

• Exposure to Jetson edge devices and camera/IMU hardware

• Familiarity with PX4/ArduPilot, ROS/ROS2, or MAVLink is a plus

Good to Have

• Experience with CUDA/TensorRT acceleration

• Knowledge of EKF2, Kalman filters, or nonlinear optimization

• Prior drone autonomy or robotics competition work

• Experience with RealSense, depth cameras, stereo rigs, or optical flow

sensors

Who Should Apply

• 1/3 years experience or post docs, Final-year students or early-career engineers interested in autonomous systems

• People who love solving hard problems in navigation without GPS

• Builders who enjoy hands-on testing, fast execution, and startup

autonomy

What You’ll Gain

• Direct exposure to real GPS-denied drone autonomy R&D

• Ability to work end-to-end: algorithm - Jetson onboard - PX4 - field tests

• Fast-paced learning with real responsibility

• Strong pathway to a full-time R&D role based on performance