Roboticsl Engineer (Precision Robotics)

Department: R&D Engineering

Location: Octobotics HQ (Noida/On-Site)

The Mission: To successfully migrate our legacy ROS 1 architecture to a high-performance ROS 2 Native ecosystem, architecting a navigation stack that survives the "unheard-of" edge cases of the real world.

1. The Context: The Great Migration

Octobotics is at a pivot point. Our legacy stack was built on ROS 1 (Noetic). It got us to MVP. But to scale, we are tearing it down and rebuilding in ROS 2 (Humble/Iron).

We are not looking for someone to maintain old code. We are looking for an Architect to lead this migration. You will deal with the pain of bridging ros1_bridge, porting custom messages, and rewriting node lifecycles from scratch. If you are afraid of breaking changes and complex dependency hell, stop reading now.

2. The "Scorecard" (Outcomes)

• The Migration:

  Port our core navigation and control logic from ROS 1 to ROS 2. This involves rewriting nodes to utilize

  Lifecycle Management

  and

  Node Composition

  for zero-copy transfer.

• Nav2 Architecture:

  We don't just "install" Nav2. You will write custom

  Behavior Tree plugins

  and

  Costmap layers

  to handle dynamic obstacles in unstructured environments.

• Middleware Optimization:

  You will own the

  DDS layer

  (FastDDS/CycloneDDS). You must tune QoS profiles for lossy WiFi environments and debug discovery traffic issues that traditional network engineers don't understand.

• Sensor Fusion & State Estimation:

  Implement and tune EKF/UKF pipelines (robot_localization) to fuse IMU, Wheel Odometry, and LiDAR. You must understand

  Covariance Matrices

  —if your covariance grows unbounded, you have failed.

• Serialization Strategy:

  Implement

  Protocol Buffers (Protobuf)

  for high-efficiency, non-ROS internal data logging and inter-process communication where overhead must be zero.

3. Technical Requirements (The Hard Skills)

The Stack (ROS 1 & ROS 2):

• Deep ROS 2 Mastery:

  You know the difference between spin(), spin_some(), and Multi-Threaded Executors. You understand why we are moving to ROS 2 (Real-time constraints, DDS security, QoS).

• Navigation Stack:

  In-depth knowledge of

  Nav2

  (Planners, Controllers, Recoveries). You understand Global vs. Local planners (A*, DWB, TEB).

• SLAM & Localization:

  Experience with

  Graph-based SLAM

  (Cartographer, SLAM Toolbox). You know how to close loops and optimize pose graphs.

The Math (The "Weeder"):

• Linear Algebra & Geometry:

  Rigid body transformations are your second language. You understand

  Quaternions

  , homogeneous transformation matrices ($T \in SE(3)$), and how to avoid Gimbal Lock.

• Kinematics:

  You can derive Forward and Inverse Kinematics for Differential Drive and Ackermann steering chassis.

• Probabilistic Robotics:

  Understanding of Bayesian estimation. You know that sensors are noisy and that "Ground Truth" is a myth.

The Code:

• C++ (14/17):

  Real-time safe coding standards. RAII, Smart Pointers, and template metaprogramming.

• Python:

  For prototyping and complex orchestration.

4. The "Topgrading" Filter (Do NOT apply if...)

• You think roslaunch is the same as ros2 launch.
• You have never defined a custom .msg or .srv file.
• You struggle to visualize a TF tree in your head (map -> odom -> base_link).
• You think latency "doesn't matter" in a control loop.

5. The Challenge: Surfing the Tsunami

Let’s be honest: AMR (Autonomous Mobile Robots) is hard.

We are solving problems that are unheard of in the standard "warehouse" world. We deal with dynamic crowds, changing lighting, and network black holes.

There will be days when the Sensor Fusion drifts for no reason. There will be days when the DDS discovery fails because of a multicast storm. There will be architectural "Tsunamis" that threaten to wipe out our sprint.

"I’m ready to surf."