Electrical Engineer (Robotics)

Description

About AIRoA

AI Robot Association (AIRoA) is an organization dedicated to advancing the development of generative AI foundation models for robotics by collecting large-scale real-world robot data, including data from humanoid robots.

AIRoA has been selected by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and NEDO for a data platform development project aimed at building generative AI foundation models for robotics under the “Post-5G Information and Communication Systems Infrastructure Enhancement R&D Project.” The project has a budget of JPY 20.5 billion. Based on this platform, AIRoA is working to collect one million hours of humanoid robot operation data using more than 100 robots, and to develop a world-class Vision-Language-Action (VLA) model.

The significance of this initiative lies not only in the scale of its real-world data and humanoid platforms. AIRoA also aims to build a “Robot Data Ecosystem” by making datasets, trained models, benchmarks, and evaluation environments as open as possible, enabling researchers, startups, and large enterprises to leverage them broadly. To achieve this, AIRoA requires not only AI models and software, but also robust robot hardware environments that can operate reliably in the real world and support continuous measurement, evaluation, and improvement.

This role will be responsible for electrical, electronics, and embedded electrical systems related to humanoid robots, dual-arm robots, robotic hands, teleoperation systems, and validation environments.

Position Overview

AIRoA is advancing the collection of real-world data, development of experimental environments, and validation of robot systems required for AI robot training and evaluation by leveraging robot hardware.

As R&D progresses, however, existing hardware is increasingly unable to meet emerging requirements. AIRoA therefore needs to design and develop its own robotic electrical systems, including humanoid robots, dual-arm robots, robotic hands, sensor integration, power systems, communication systems, and safety systems.

In this position, you will work closely with Mechanical Engineers, Robotics Engineers, AI/Software Engineers, and Research Scientists to lead electrical design, electronics design, sensor and actuator integration, power and communication design, prototyping, evaluation, troubleshooting, and design improvement for robot systems.

This is not a role focused merely on maintaining hardware for data collection. Rather, it is a key position responsible for designing the “real-world interface” that enables a global-scale AI robotics research infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• Design electrical and electronics systems for humanoid robots, dual-arm robots, robotic hands, and teleoperation systems
• Select and integrate sensors, actuators, motor drivers, control boards, power supplies, and communication systems
• Design internal robot wiring, harnesses, connector selection, and electrical layout
• Design power and safety systems, including batteries, power distribution, protection circuits, emergency stops, and safety mechanisms
• Electrically integrate motors, encoders, IMUs, force/torque sensors, tactile sensors, cameras, and related components
• Assemble, wire, debug, evaluate, and conduct failure analysis for prototypes and research robots
• Improve the operational stability of robot hardware in experimental and data collection environments
• Analyze and resolve issues related to noise, heat, voltage drop, communication instability, poor contact, and wire breakage
• Create and maintain electrical design specifications, wiring diagrams, BOMs, inspection procedures, and evaluation reports
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Mechanical Engineers, Robotics Engineers, AI/Software Engineers, and researchers
• Communicate technically with external manufacturers, suppliers, fabrication partners, and member companies
• Improve designs with future scalability, maintainability, and reproducibility in mind

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Control Engineering, Robotics, Mechatronics, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
• Practical experience in electrical design, electronics design, or embedded electrical system design for robots, industrial machinery, factory automation equipment, mobility systems, precision equipment, medical devices, automotive systems, or similar products
• Practical experience selecting and integrating one or more of the following: sensors, actuators, motors, motor drivers, control boards, power supplies, or communication devices
• Experience creating or reviewing wiring diagrams, harness diagrams, electrical layouts, BOMs, or related documentation
• Practical experience evaluating and troubleshooting electrical systems using oscilloscopes, multimeters, regulated power supplies, and similar equipment
• Hands-on experience with prototype or R&D-stage hardware, including design, assembly, evaluation, debugging, and improvement
• Experience collaborating with mechanical, control, and software engineers to bring physical systems into operation
• Business-level Japanese proficiency (equivalent to JLPT N2 or above)

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience developing humanoid robots, dual-arm robots, robotic hands, mobile robots, collaborative robots, or similar systems
• Experience in electronics design for high-degree-of-freedom robots, mechatronics products, or devices with moving components
• Knowledge of and experience integrating brushless DC motors, servo motors, motor drivers, encoders, IMUs, force/torque sensors, tactile sensors, and related components
• Experience integrating devices using communication interfaces such as CAN, EtherCAT, Ethernet, USB, RS-485, SPI, I2C, and UART
• Experience designing power and safety systems, including batteries, power distribution, protection circuits, emergency stops, and safety mechanisms
• Experience analyzing and resolving issues related to noise, heat, voltage drop, poor contact, wire breakage, EMC/EMI, and related factors
• Experience with PCB design, circuit design, and board evaluation
• Experience using ROS/ROS 2, Linux, Python, C/C++, or related tools for hardware evaluation and debugging
• Experience with mass-production design, supplier selection, quality improvement, ECR/ECO processes, or production ramp-up
• Experience communicating technical information in English-speaking environments

Benefits

There are currently no comparable projects in the world that collect data and develop foundation models on such a large scale. As mentioned above, this is one of Japan’s leading national projects, supported by a substantial investment of 20.5 billion yen from NEDO.

This position will play a crucial role in determining the success of the project. You will have broad discretion and responsibility, and we are confident that, if successful, you will gain both a great sense of achievement and the opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to society.

Furthermore, we strongly encourage engineers to actively build their careers through this project-for example, by publishing research papers and engaging in academic activities.