About the role#
NIO is seeking an AI Robotics Research Intern to join the team working at the intersection of embodied AI and dexterous manipulation. This role focuses on using large-scale foundation models and human data to build physical world intelligence for robots. You will work on harvesting human-object interaction data from sources ranging from web videos to high-fidelity glove data, translating these insights into robotic behaviors, and deploying policies on physical hardware to perform complex, contact-rich tasks.
What you'll do#
- Develop and refine scalable frameworks for transferring human-object interaction skills to diverse robotic embodiments.
- Architect autonomous pipelines to process visual and human glove-collected data, extracting spatial and contact-rich information for generalist robot training.
- Implement generative architectures to synthesize physically grounded, high-fidelity trajectories based on human reference motions.
- Explore cross-embodiment representations to enable joint training on human and robot data, improving generalization in unstructured environments.
- Research and optimize distillation and retargeting techniques to bridge the gap between simulation-trained policies and physical robotic deployment.
- Utilize vision-language foundation models to segment skills and extract task-relevant parameters from human activities.
What you'll need#
- Master’s or Ph.D. in Robotics, Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related fields.
- Strong technical foundation in robot learning and control, including reinforcement learning, imitation learning, world modeling, or representation learning.
- Practical experience implementing and fine-tuning Generative Models and Transformer architectures.
- Hands-on experience with robotic manipulation systems, specifically involving contact-rich interaction, grasping, or multi-sensor perception like tactile, force/torque, or proprioception.
- Proficiency in Python and modern ML frameworks such as PyTorch, JAX, or TensorFlow.
- Experience using robotics middleware or simulation tools including ROS/ROS2, MuJoCo, Isaac Sim, or PyBullet.
- Ability to implement, experiment, and iterate on research ideas through empirical results on simulated or physical systems.
Location & details#
- Location: San Jose, California, United States.
- Modality: On-site.
- Employment: Full-time, paid internship.
- Compensation: The base salary range for this position is $38.00 to $46.00 per hour, determined by work location, skills, experience, and education.
About NIO
NIO designs, develops, and sells premium smart electric vehicles. The company focuses on autonomous driving, electric powertrains, and battery technologies. Founded in 2014, it operates as a public company with headquarters in Jiading, Shanghai. Its workforce includes over 10,000 employees across offices in China, the United States, and Germany.
How to get in at NIO
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