Co-Op, Building Robotics Skills for Automating Science

Your Impact at LILA

As a Co-Op on the Next Gen Robotics team at Lila Sciences, you will help build the software infrastructure that lets our robots run scientific workflows autonomously inside the Autonomous Science Foundries (AISFs). The team is developing general-purpose robotic skills (picking, placing, transporting, interacting with lab instruments) that the AISFs use to execute experiments end to end with minimal human intervention.

Your work will sit at the intersection of robotics software, simulation, and platform integration. You will help develop robotic skill libraries, improve how robots are tested in simulation before deployment, and contribute to the systems that hand off work between robots and the broader autonomous science platform. Expect a mix of writing production-quality software, debugging real-world behavior on physical hardware, and iterating quickly on what works.

You will work alongside robotics engineers, AI researchers, and software engineers, with day-to-day support from the Next Gen Robotics team. The output is software that runs in production lab environments and directly accelerates the rate at which Lila can run experiments.

What You'll Be Building

• Build and extend robotic skill libraries used by the AISFs (manipulation, transport, instrument handling)
• Write integration code connecting robotic skills to the autonomous science platform
• Improve simulation environments used to test robot behaviors before deployment on hardware
• Debug real-world robot behavior on physical hardware and contribute fixes back to the codebase
• Collaborate with robotics, software, and AI engineers to ship code into production lab environments
• Document new robotic skills and integration patterns for the rest of the team

What You'll Need to Succeed

• In-progress Bachelor's or Master's in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, or a related field
• Proficiency in Python, with coursework or project experience writing well-tested code
• Familiarity with at least one robotics framework (ROS/ROS2, or equivalent)
• Comfort working at the boundary between software and physical hardware, including hands-on debugging
• Strong communication skills and ability to work effectively across a multidisciplinary team
• Available for the full July through December 2026 co-op term

Bonus Points For

• Hands-on project experience with ROS/ROS2 or another robotics framework
• Familiarity with simulation tools like Gazebo, Isaac Sim, or PyBullet
• Exposure to C++ in addition to Python
• Experience integrating software with sensors, actuators, or other physical systems
• Coursework or projects involving motion planning, path planning, or robot control