Summer 2025 Internships

Hello Robot is working towards a future where robots are fun, useful, and inclusive. As an organization we value open-source software and conduct our development in the open. Our latest product,  Stretch 3 - a mobile manipulation platform for research labs - has been featured by IEEE Spectrum and Technology Review. It has been used in award-winning work across HRI and Embodied AI. Stretch has one of the world’s largest user communities for mobile manipulation. The community working with Stretch includes universities, startups, and Fortune 500 companies

We’re a small team with extensive robotics experience, and we’re committed to building a future where mobile manipulators can enhance life for everyone, including children, older adults, and people with disabilities.

About the internships

Our internship program gives you the opportunity to work with real robots and learn the ins and outs of building an innovative robotics startup from the ground up. We provide an open, inclusive, and transparent work environment where interns can contribute to critical path hardware and software projects.

We are looking for candidates with high motivation, strong technical skills, excellent communication, and a real passion to see technology have a positive impact in the world. 

• Robotics Software Engineer (focus Assistive Robotics)

• Robotics Software Engineer (focus Robotics and AI) 

• Robotics Software Engineer (focus UX and HRI )

• Robotics Software Engineer (focus Sensing and Control)

In these roles, you’ll receive mentorship from experienced roboticists, and have the opportunity to learn from the founders: Dr. Aaron Edsinger, previously the Director of Robotics at Google, and Dr. Charlie Kemp, previously a tenured professor at Georgia Tech.

About you

All students (Freshman-Senior, Graduate) and recent grads welcome. Please note that the role descriptions below likely miss attributes or skills that could make you a great fit for the role. Research has shown this applies especially to women and other marginalized groups, who tend to apply only if they check 100% of every box. If you feel you’d be a good fit for this role, please don’t hesitate to apply!

How to apply

If you’re interested in applying for one of the internships, please share your information on the following form.

Location

Hello Robot is a distributed organization with team members in Martinez CA, Atlanta GA, and Pittsburgh PA. Our headquarters is in Martinez.  We can support remote work-from-home internships in many cases, and we can ship you a robot to work with.

Roles

The Robotics Software Engineer internships will give you the opportunity to work with real robots and write open-source software that will be used by our fast growing user community. Your work will improve the capability and reliability of Stretch. In this role you will:

• Contribute to Stretch’s ROS packages, Stretch Python packages, and/or Stretch AI packages and demos

• Ensure a reliable and stable code base by developing on-robot unit tests

• Expand the software documentation and user tutorials

• Share your work on the Community Forum

Candidates will benefit from some of the following experience:

• Hands on experience programming and debugging real robots

• Proficiency in Python

• Proficiency with ROS and robotics algorithms

• Experience with Linux

• A portfolio (e.g. on Github) demonstrating software and robotics experience

In addition to general robotics software development, each internship has a specific focus area. 

Focus Area: Assistive Robotics

Location: Martinez, CA

In this focus area you will work on developing new capabilities for Stretch that can be used to assist individuals with mobility impairments. This effort is a continuation of previous work featured in the Washington Post. In the role, you will

• Work alongside an occupational therapist to explore novel use-cases of Stretch for individuals with mobility impairments

• Implement new autonomous and teleoperated robot proof-of-concept capabilities based on user feedback

• Field and test the robot in real homes

• Document and share your work on the Stretch Tool Share and the Community Forum

Focus Area: Robotics and AI

Location: Martinez, CA or remote

In this focus area, you will expand on and improve the ROS2 and Stretch AI codebase for Stretch, with a focus on increasing the reliability, robustness, and product readiness of the software.  In this role you will:

• Improve upon the robot's odometry, SLAM, and navigation behaviors

• Improve upon the robot’s autonomous visually guided grasping

• Leverage advances in Embodied AI, including learning-from-demonstration, to support dexterous manipulation capabilities

• Help community members in their work to explore robotics and AI by adding new features to the software code base

Focus Area: UX and HRI

Location: Martinez, CA or remote

In this focus area you will work on delivering an outstanding product experience to users with mobility impairments. In this role you will:

• Collect data on, characterize, and improve upon the user’s cognitive load when interacting with and operating the robot

• Work closely with an Occupational Therapist to interview users and conduct needs finding exercises

• Develop new UI prototypes using design tools such as Figma

• Implement new software features in the user interface using HTML, CSS, Javascript/Typescript and React

Focus Area: Sensing and Control

Location: Martinez, CA

In this focus area you will work on implementing new features at lowest levels of the robot software stack in order to achieve dynamic, reactive, and robust sensori-motor behaviors. In this role you will:

• Create tools in Python and C to better characterize and analyze the robot sensor-motor control system

• Implement controllers to allow for contact sensitive and safe robot motions across its primary joints

• Implement controllers for responsive and fast motion during data collection for learning

• Implement low level sensori-motor behaviors for collision avoidance and contact detection