About the role#
This 12-week summer internship focuses on the intersection of foundation models and robotic manipulation. You will work with the Robotics Division to explore how AI agents can reason about physical environments and orchestrate robotic capabilities to complete complex tasks. Your research will involve bridging high-level reasoning with low-level robot execution, testing these systems on physical hardware and in simulation.
What you'll do#
- Develop and evaluate agentic approaches using vision-language models for robotic manipulation.
- Integrate foundation-model agents with existing robotic capabilities like perception, motion planning, and grasping.
- Investigate specific challenges in three-dimensional spatial reasoning, action feasibility, and failure recovery.
- Design and conduct experiments on physical robotic platforms or in simulation environments.
- Analyze system performance and characterize failure modes to evaluate generalization across different tasks.
- Present your research findings through reports, demonstrations, and potential publications.
What you'll need#
- Current enrollment in a Master's or PhD program in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field.
- Proficiency in C++ or Python, with experience in testing and debugging technical software.
- A solid foundation in robotics, including kinematics, dynamics, motion planning, perception, or control.
- Experience with robotics projects through research, coursework, or personal work using hardware or simulation.
- Ability to formulate technical problems and design systematic experiments.
- Interest in autonomous systems and connecting high-level reasoning with physical robot capabilities.
- Bonus points for experience with ROS/ROS 2, vision-language models, LLM agents, 3D geometry, or robot learning methods like reinforcement learning.
Location & details#
- Location: Los Altos, California.
- Term: Summer 2027.
- Modality: Hybrid.
- Employment: Full-time, paid internship.
About Toyota Research Institute
Toyota Research Institute is a research organization founded in 2016. Based in Los Altos, California, it operates as a subsidiary of Toyota. The company focuses on artificial intelligence, robotics, automated driving, and material sciences. Its staff of approximately 485 employees works to develop technology for vehicles and robots while researching new materials for batteries and fuel cells.
How to get in at Toyota Research Institute
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