I led the electrical design and development of a obstacle detection sensor (ODS) intended to replace the current ODS on Hercules, which is reaching end-of-life.

This was my primary ownership project. I drove the end-to-end EE effort, including schematic design, component selection, layout oversight, and hardware bring-up. In parallel, I coordinated closely with the firmware and mechanical teams to ensure firmware integration, mechanical housing development, and prototype validation progressed in lockstep with the electrical design.

The sensor architecture was built around Power over Ethernet (PoE), enabling both power delivery and data communication over a single interface. This approach simplified system integration, reduced cabling complexity, and improved overall robustness. Based on current production volumes, the redesigned sensor was projected to reduce manufacturing costs by approximately $7.4M annually.

This project provided direct experience owning a production-facing PCB while balancing technical tradeoffs, system constraints, and cost considerations.

Alongside my primary project, I designed and developed multiple LED PCBs for robotic vision applications, ranging from 3 W to 40 W.

These boards supported both continuous illumination and high-intensity flash use cases for camera systems. The work required careful consideration of electrical robustness, thermal behavior, and long-term reliability under sustained operation. Designs were validated through bench testing and integrated into larger robotic vision assemblies.

This work strengthened my experience designing power-dense hardware for real operating environments rather than low-power or purely academic use cases.

A significant portion of my role involved executing and supporting Design Verification Testing (DVT) across a broad range of PCBs supporting multiple robotics programs.

I ran DVT on boards used in drive units, sensor systems, and articulated robotic arms, covering both in-house designs and production-adjacent hardware. Testing activities included short detection and fault isolation, power-rail verification, power-up sequencing analysis, I²C communication testing, high-speed signal validation, and operational behavior characterization.

I regularly used oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, multimeters, thermal imaging, and Linux-based diagnostic tools to investigate failures, validate designs, and support root-cause analysis across diverse hardware platforms.

One notable debugging effort involved diagnosing camera performance issues during video streaming. Through signal-level investigation, I identified signal-integrity-related root causes on an in-house sensor PCB, enabling corrective action and improved system reliability.

This work emphasized methodical debugging, hypothesis-driven testing, and clear communication of technical findings to cross-functional teams.

Across all projects, I worked closely with mechanical, firmware, systems, and test engineering teams to support hardware from early development through validation.

Rather than operating in isolation, I regularly coordinated integration milestones, testing plans, and design updates across disciplines. This experience reinforced that successful robotics hardware is the result of strong technical ownership combined with disciplined cross-functional collaboration.