Level: Mid-level · Reports to: Engineering Lead · Basis: Full-time contract
About the role
CoreDRIFT is in service. It goes out to core sheds, scans drill core, and returns data our customers rely on — the hard problems of getting a robot to photograph geological core to a traceable optical standard are solved, built, and working.
Now we are building Mark 2, and we are hiring the engineer who will own its electrical and mechatronic design.
This is a clean-sheet role on top of a proven platform. You will own the power system, motor-drive electronics, drive-base mechanics, safety interlocks and sensor integration for the next-generation machine, from schematic and CAD through bench validation to the field. Mark 1 tells you what the system has to do and where the real-world constraints bite; Mark 2 is where you decide how it should be done properly.
You will work closely with the software team at the hardware/software boundary. CoreDRIFT is driven by a Python control service with an authoritative electrical map maintained in configuration, so your schematics, wiring and mechanics integrate cleanly with the software that commands them.
About CoreDFX and CoreDRIFT
CoreDFX builds robotics and imaging systems for the geology and mining sector. CoreDRIFT is a mobile robot that autonomously photographs and 3D-scans geological drill core, producing high-resolution, all-in-focus macro imagery and RGBD point clouds against a traceable optical target in the 5–10 µm range.
The platform in service today combines:
- A 6-DOF robotic arm (over Modbus/TCP) that carries the cameras and depth sensor on its flange.
- A four-wheel mecanum drive base driven by integrated servo motors.
- An imaging payload of two USB DSLR cameras, an Intel RealSense depth camera, and a lidar.
- White and UV LED lighting on relays, and a FlySky iBUS RC link for manual teleoperation.
- A microcontroller running a FastAPI and WebSockets control service, with power and thermal monitoring and both software and hardware safety interlocks.
Mark 2 keeps that capability and raises the engineering underneath it: more headroom, longer runs, cleaner integration, and a build that can be manufactured and serviced repeatedly rather than one at a time.
What you'll build
The role is organised around a set of concrete Mark 2 objectives. You will own these workstreams end to end, from schematic and CAD through bench validation to field deployment.
Power distribution and thermal design
- Design a power architecture that isolates and regulates the motor and compute rails independently, giving Mark 2 ample headroom for sustained operation under full motor load.
- Specify and integrate the battery system, DC-DC regulation, protection (fusing, reverse-polarity, inrush) and a well-organised power-distribution board or harness.
- Engineer the thermal solution so the compute and drive electronics stay comfortably within limits through long field runs.
Drive base and mechanics
- Design the Mark 2 mecanum drive base: motor mounting, couplings, wheel drive and chassis, to a standard that supports full autonomous navigation with onboard lidar.
- Design rugged, serviceable mounting for the electronics, battery, cameras and sensors, suitable for a mobile field robot that gets transported, knocked and worked on in the field.
Motor-drive and control electronics
- Design the Mark 2 motor-drive stage — driver, encoder and GPIO interface — including wiring, connectors and EMI performance.
- Produce a clean, documented wiring harness and connector scheme that matches the software's pin map.
Safety and interlock systems
- Design and build the hardware motor-enable latch and e-stop circuit that the control architecture is built around: a hardware interlock that de-energises the base and gates the arm if the control loop stops refreshing it.
- Integrate a hardware watchdog path and make the emergency-stop chain dependable end to end.
Sensor, actuator and interface integration
- Integrate and harness the full sensor and actuator set: robotic arm (Ethernet/Modbus-TCP), RealSense and DSLRs (USB), lidar, RC controller (UART), and the LED and UV relays (GPIO).
- Deliver clean, well-partitioned serial, USB and GPIO wiring so every interface stays dependable through long capture runs.
Imaging and camera mounting
- Design a rigid, repeatable, calibratable macro-camera mount on the arm flange that supports hand-eye calibration and the 5–10 µm optical validation target.
- Optimise the camera interface, including high-rate focus-bracket capture, at the electrical and mechanical level.
Documentation and handover
- Deliver maintainable schematics, PCB and board files, wiring and harness diagrams, a bill of materials, and an electrical map that stays in sync with the software configuration.
- Work alongside the software team so drivers, pin maps and calibration match the physical build.