Hands Actuator Controls Engineer Job at Figure (San Jose)

Job Description

We are seeking a Hands Actuator Controls Engineer on the Actuation/Hand Integration team to develop and optimize the control systems of our humanoid robot hand actuators, to enable precise, smooth and safe motion. This role will design multi‑degree‑of‑freedom position and force controllers, and sensor‑fusion algorithms to enable dexterous manipulation. The engineer will also address practical issues like bumpless mode transitions, actuator saturation and system linearization, ensuring high performance across all operating modes.

Job Responsibility

Architect multi-DOF controls: design scalable, high-performance, robust controls of hands actuators to enable AI policies to achieve human-like dexterity of the hands and object manipulation, using both torque‑based and position‑based strategies
Implement force control: Develop algorithms to enable grasp-force control, active shock isolation and impedance/admittance control
Implement state machines for transitions: Create control state machines for bump-less mode changes and handle saturation/anti‑windup
Design sensor‑fusion and state estimation for pinch, slip or impact detection algorithms
Create diagnostics and fallback strategies: Build real‑time diagnostics, monitoring and fallback modes to maintain safe operation in every condition
Model, test and correlate: Develop numerical models of the hand system and perform test/model correlations to validate and tune control algorithms
Deploy at scale: Implement robust techniques that handle variations across a large fleet in diverse environments
Accelerate design iteration: Provide feedback to mechanical, motor, electrical, firmware and sensing teams through trade‑off studies, simulations and subsystem testing
Collaborate across disciplines: design control interfaces in collaboration with AI teams for data collection and for policy evaluation.

Requirements

At least 10 years of hands‑on work with robotic or actuation systems, with a proven record of designing high‑performance control architectures for complex, multi‑DOF systems
Deep knowledge of motion and force control (including admittance/impedance control and vibration/shock isolation) and experience conducting actuation trade studies
Strong C++ and Python skills
comfortable developing on Linux‑based systems
Solid grounding in mechanics, kinematics, dynamics, control theory and sensor technologies, with familiarity in managing mode transitions and anti‑windup/saturation strategies
capability to rapid-prototype, test and deploy robust solutions at scale
Master’s or PhD. degree in Mechanical, Electrical/Controls Engineering, Robotics or a related field.

Nice to have

Prior work on robotic hands actuation systems or multi DOF systems
Prior expertise working with MIMO systems
Prior Expertise deploying control systems on a large fleet of systems.

Figure - All Job Offers

Select Country

Hands Actuator Controls Engineer

Job Description

Job Responsibility

Requirements

Nice to have

Looking for more opportunities?

Hands Actuator Controls Engineer

Senior Controls Engineer

Automations and Controls Engineer

Automations and Controls Engineer

Staff Actuator Design Engineer

Senior Actuator Design Engineer

Embedded Software Engineer II, Robotic Controls

Avionics Hardware Engineer (Thrust Vector Control Actuator)

Robotic Systems Integration Manager

Our AI answers in your language