Apptronik
Controls Engineer - Actuation
About this role
Apptronik seeks a Controls Engineer – Actuation to develop high-fidelity actuator models and deploy low-level motor control for humanoid robots. You will bridge simulation and hardware by characterizing actuator behavior, designing closed-loop controllers, and validating sim-to-real performance using system identification and experimental validation.
What you'll do
- Develop and maintain high-fidelity actuator models in simulation, including friction, compliance, thermal, and torque/current limits
- Design, tune, and deploy closed-loop torque and current control for hardware actuators
- Design and execute hardware test campaigns to characterize actuator behavior and extract model parameters
- Apply system identification techniques to extract trustworthy physical models from experimental data
- Validate sim-to-real fidelity quantitatively and understand model/controller limitations
- Build Python/C++ tooling for experiment automation, model extraction, tuning, and simulator integration
What they're looking for
- C++ programming with physics engine and simulator codebase experience
- Motor electromechanics and classical control theory (Bode plots, stability analysis)
- Hands-on servo and actuator control on real hardware
- System identification and model fitting from experimental data
- Python for test automation, data analysis, and tooling
- Cross-functional collaboration with controls and firmware teams
- Robotics simulator experience (MuJoCo, Isaac Sim, Brax)
- Real-time actuator communication and embedded control protocols
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Apptronik
Apptronik builds Apollo, a humanoid robot designed for manufacturing, logistics, and other industrial applications. The company is hiring firmware engineers, software engineers, controls specialists, and networking engineers to develop embedded systems, motor control, motion pipelines, and wireless connectivity that power the robot's dexterous manipulation and autonomous operation.
- Website
- apptronik.com
Likely interview questions
- Walk us through a project where you designed and tuned a closed-loop motor controller—what challenges did you face and how did you validate performance?
- How have you approached system identification in past roles, and what methods did you use to ensure your extracted models translated well to real hardware?