What are the responsibilities and job description for the Firmware Engineer Co-op - Summer/Fall 2026 position at Fleet Robotics?
Firmware Engineer Co-op - Underwater Robotics
Job Summary
Fleet Robotics is a Harvard University and VC-incubated green-tech startup developing its first product, an underwater robot to inspect and maintain ship hulls. At Fleet, we are looking for a software, computer, or electrical & computer engineering intern interested in contributing to new firmware and embedded system features for our novel underwater robot. Potential systems under development for this co-op position include:
Primary Responsibilities
Fleet Robotics grew out of the Harvard Microrobotics lab, incubated by Material Impact and Harvard University. We have a core team of roboticists who have designed robots for use in underwater inspection and navigation, and who were the world’s first to deploy tracking tags to sperm whales with autonomous drones. We are a passionate team that cares deeply about solving significant environmental and ocean-based problems with cutting-edge robotics.
Everyone’s background is different. We are committed to fostering an environment with diverse experiences, ideas, and backgrounds. Diversity includes not only race and gender identity, but also sexual orientation, religion, and disability status. We are deliberate and self-reflective about the kind of team culture that we are building, seeking engineers who are not only strong in their own aptitudes but who care deeply about supporting each other's growth. If you are excited by the ability to develop novel robots and solve challenges, then we encourage you to apply.
Meaningful and Impactful
We are tackling a thousand-year-old problem: the growth of biofouling on ships. Biofouling is the growth of microorganisms, algae, barnacles, and larger ocean organisms on the ship’s hull. As a ship delivers goods around the world, the growth of these organisms significantly increases the drag forces on the hull and in doing so, significantly increases fuel consumption. Ships are the world’s largest consumers of carbon-heavy fuels (called bunker fuels).
Conventionally, the commercial shipping industry handles biofouling in two ways: preventatively, by coating the ship’s hull in a highly toxic paint that discourages growth, and reactively, by stopping operations every 6-months or so to have divers scrape off years of fouling (along with some toxic paint). This is akin to deciding never to brush your teeth because you go to the dentist every five years. There is a better way.
Our small autonomous robots live on the side of a ship’s hull for years, gently removing the earliest stage of biofouling on a regular basis. This early-stage biofouling is easy-to-remove slime. The technical challenge lies in having a robot that can withstand a marine environments, adhere to the ship hull while it is underway, and clean entirely autonomously. By removing slime often and early, we prevent the growth of macrofouling, significantly reduce fuel consumption, and prevent the spread of invasive species from port to port.
Job Summary
Fleet Robotics is a Harvard University and VC-incubated green-tech startup developing its first product, an underwater robot to inspect and maintain ship hulls. At Fleet, we are looking for a software, computer, or electrical & computer engineering intern interested in contributing to new firmware and embedded system features for our novel underwater robot. Potential systems under development for this co-op position include:
- High-powered electronics to drive magnetic coils
- Sensing systems to measure paint thickness
- Ultrasonic and sonar sensors to detect obstacles
- Wireless charging and battery management
- Optimization of a robot with 8 degrees of freedom
- Underwater localization systems involving acoustics
Primary Responsibilities
- Design and implement both bare-metal and real-time firmware for microcontrollers
- Enhance and expand automated testing frameworks for unit testing and hardware in the loop testing fixtures
- Debug and troubleshoot complex software, firmware, and hardware interactions
- Support integration between firmware and higher-level software control systems
- Develop and optimize embedded drivers for sensors, actuators and peripheral devices
- Work collaboratively with the electrical, mechanical and path planning software teams to bring up new hardware and software
- Currently enrolled in a minimum of 4-year university program of a related discipline and available for a 4-6 month internship or co-op
- Strong programming skills in C and C (preferably both)
- Some familiarity with Python or Bash
- Familiarity with Git software version control and code review processes
- Familiarity with the Linux operating system
- Familiarity with hardware design and/or computer architecture
- Experience with standard communication protocols (SPI, I2C, CAN, UART)
- Basic knowledge of software development lifecycles, debugging practices, revision control, bug tracking, and documentation
- Strong analytical and problem solving skills
- Good teamwork, communication and interpersonal skills
- Ability to work independently and within complementary teams
Fleet Robotics grew out of the Harvard Microrobotics lab, incubated by Material Impact and Harvard University. We have a core team of roboticists who have designed robots for use in underwater inspection and navigation, and who were the world’s first to deploy tracking tags to sperm whales with autonomous drones. We are a passionate team that cares deeply about solving significant environmental and ocean-based problems with cutting-edge robotics.
Everyone’s background is different. We are committed to fostering an environment with diverse experiences, ideas, and backgrounds. Diversity includes not only race and gender identity, but also sexual orientation, religion, and disability status. We are deliberate and self-reflective about the kind of team culture that we are building, seeking engineers who are not only strong in their own aptitudes but who care deeply about supporting each other's growth. If you are excited by the ability to develop novel robots and solve challenges, then we encourage you to apply.
Meaningful and Impactful
We are tackling a thousand-year-old problem: the growth of biofouling on ships. Biofouling is the growth of microorganisms, algae, barnacles, and larger ocean organisms on the ship’s hull. As a ship delivers goods around the world, the growth of these organisms significantly increases the drag forces on the hull and in doing so, significantly increases fuel consumption. Ships are the world’s largest consumers of carbon-heavy fuels (called bunker fuels).
Conventionally, the commercial shipping industry handles biofouling in two ways: preventatively, by coating the ship’s hull in a highly toxic paint that discourages growth, and reactively, by stopping operations every 6-months or so to have divers scrape off years of fouling (along with some toxic paint). This is akin to deciding never to brush your teeth because you go to the dentist every five years. There is a better way.
Our small autonomous robots live on the side of a ship’s hull for years, gently removing the earliest stage of biofouling on a regular basis. This early-stage biofouling is easy-to-remove slime. The technical challenge lies in having a robot that can withstand a marine environments, adhere to the ship hull while it is underway, and clean entirely autonomously. By removing slime often and early, we prevent the growth of macrofouling, significantly reduce fuel consumption, and prevent the spread of invasive species from port to port.