Robotics Engineer, Motion Planning

About this role

Contoro Robotics seeks a Motion Planning Robotics Engineer to develop path generation and trajectory optimization algorithms for an autonomous warehouse robot that unloads boxes from trailers. You'll design collision-aware motion planning solutions and time-optimal trajectories while collaborating with autonomy, perception, and controls teams to maximize throughput in constrained container environments.

What you'll do

• Design geometric path planning for high-DOF manipulators navigating cluttered container spaces using sampling-based and optimization-based planners
• Develop time-optimal, jerk-limited trajectories that minimize cycle time while respecting velocity, acceleration, and torque constraints
• Integrate perception outputs and collision reasoning into the planning scene to avoid container walls, ceilings, and neighboring boxes
• Validate motion planning algorithms on real hardware and measure cycle-time improvements
• Collaborate with autonomy, orchestration, perception, and controls teams to deliver reliable end-to-end motion
• Handle edge cases including near-singularities, joint limits, and payload stability to prevent dropped boxes

What they're looking for

• C++ (modern standards) and Python programming
• ROS 1/ROS 2 development
• MoveIt motion planning framework
• Sampling-based planners (RRT, RRT-Connect, PRM) and optimization-based planners (CHOMP, TrajOpt)
• Time-optimal trajectory generation and time parameterization (TOTG, TOPP-RA, Ruckig)
• Manipulator kinematics, dynamics, and constraint handling
• Perception integration (point clouds, object poses, occupancy maps)
• Problem-solving and cross-functional communication