Control and Automation Engineer, PAT Systems

eXalt; Paris; Sur place; EUR 70 000 - 110 000; Plein temps

Résumé du poste

eXalt recherche un Ingénieur Contrôle et Automatisation pour systèmes PAT destinés à des produits de communication libre‑espace et photoniques avancés. Vous prendrez en charge le contrôle de la chaîne PAT, du modèle système à l’implémentation temps réel et à la validation en laboratoire.

Le poste implique le design de lois de commande, le développement de contrôles de précision et la modélisation dynamique avec des exigences de robustesse et de synchronisation multi‑axes.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree ou diplôme d’ingénieur en Automatisme, Mécatronique, Robotique ou domaine connexe.
• Expérience de conception et mesure d’au moins un système en boucle fermée sur matériel réel.
• Maîtrise de MATLAB/Simulink ou équivalent.
• Connaissance des cinématiques directes et réverses, procédures de calibration.
• Expérience en calcul temps réel embarqué et RTOS appréciée.
• Anglais professionnel requis pour documentation technique et échanges internationaux.

Responsabilités

• Concevoir, régler et valider des lois de commande pour boucles fines et grossières.
• Développer le contrôle servomoteur pour les mécanismes de pointage de précision.
• Modéliser le système et simuler la chaîne de pointage complète.
• Réaliser l’intégration HW et valider le comportement sur des systèmes réels.
• Participer à l’intégration avec les équipes optique, mécanique et électronique.
• Assurer des mesures en laboratoire et vérifier les performances en boucle fermée.

Connaissances

MATLAB/Simulink

Control theory

Embedded C

Kinematics

RTOS

Kalman filter

Formation

Master’s degree in Automation/Mechatronics/Robotics

Outils

FPGA/SoC data paths

RTOS environments

Measurement equipment

Description du poste

Descriptif du poste

Our client is an innovative and fast-growing technology company developing advanced optical communication and photonics-based systems for highly demanding applications.

Descriptif du poste

Our client is an innovative and fast-growing technology company developing advanced optical communication and photonics-based systems for highly demanding applications.

As part of the growth of its engineering activities, we are looking for a Control and Automation Engineer, PAT Systems.
Reporting to the R&D and Engineering teams, you will contribute to the development of Pointing, Acquisition and Tracking (PAT) systems for advanced Free-Space Optical (FSO) communication products.
PAT is a key function in laser communication systems: two terminals must identify each other, acquire the link and maintain a highly accurate beam alignment while the underlying platform is moving and subject to vibration. This role sits at the intersection of control theory, optics, precision mechanics, sensors and real-time embedded computing.
Working closely with the Pointing and Telecommunications Architect, you will own the control layer of the PAT chain from system models and control-law design to real-time implementation, bench testing and performance correlation. You will take your designs into hardware and validate their behaviour on real systems.

• Control Law Design: Design, tune and validate control laws for fine and coarse pointing loops. Apply loop shaping and state-space techniques, including notch filters, resonators, feed-forward control, disturbance rejection and handover between fast and slow steering stages.
• Precision Servo Control: Develop velocity and position-control functions for precision pointing mechanisms. Address non-ideal physical effects such as friction, stick-slip behaviour at low speed, actuator non-linearities, hysteresis, dead bands and multi-axis synchronisation.
• System Modelling & Simulation: Build plant models covering actuators, structural dynamics and sensors. Develop end-to-end simulations of the complete pointing chain, integrating realistic disturbance spectra, delays, measurement noise and platform dynamics. Run Monte Carlo analyses to assess robustness and performance probability.
• Kinematics & Geometry: Develop and maintain line-of-sight decomposition models, forward and inverse kinematics for steering mechanisms, calibration maps and reference-frame transformations from the platform down to the detector.
• Acquisition Strategy: Define and optimise search and acquisition strategies, including scan patterns, dwell times, detection thresholds in noisy environments, acquisition probability, expected acquisition duration and transition to stable closed-loop tracking.
• Pointing Error Budgets: Build, maintain and defend pointing-error budgets. Decompose the overall error into its contributors, allocate requirements across the control chain and substantiate performance through analysis and measurement.
• Real-Time Embedded Implementation: Implement control algorithms on target hardware, using bare-metal or RTOS-based embedded C. Contribute to real-time architecture decisions, including sampling rates, timing, latency budgets, synchronisation and timestamping.
• Bench Testing & Correlation: Develop and operate breadboards and test benches. Measure open-loop and closed-loop performance, frequency responses, disturbance rejection and residual jitter under controlled perturbations. Investigate model-to-test discrepancies and update models accordingly.
• System Integration: Work closely with optical, mechanical, electrical, embedded software and system engineering teams to ensure that controls, sensors, actuators and optical performance are integrated coherently.

Profil recherché

• Education: Master’s degree or Engineering degree in Automation, Mechatronics, Robotics, Electrical Engineering or a related discipline. Equivalent practical experience may also be considered.
• Professional Background: You have designed, implemented and measured at least one closed-loop control system on real hardwarecsuch as a precision stage, robotic system, stabilised payload, drone, optical bench or motion-control system.
• Technical Expertise:
• Strong proficiency in MATLAB/Simulink or an equivalent control design and simulation environment.
• Solid command of classical and modern control techniques, including loop shaping, state-space control, stability-margin analysis, filtering, feed-forward control and disturbance rejection.
• Experience modelling dynamic systems, including actuators, structures, sensors, delays, noise and non-linearities.
• Ability to perform or support system identification and to correlate dynamic models with experimental measurements.
• Practical understanding of precision actuator behaviour, including friction, stick-slip, hysteresis, dead bands, saturation and non-linear drive effects.
• Knowledge of forward and inverse kinematics, calibration procedures and coordinate/reference-frame transformations.
• Experience with estimation and filtering techniques, such as Kalman filtering or observer-based approaches, is appreciated.
• Proficiency in embedded C and the ability to deploy control functions on microcontroller, SoC or similar processing targets.
• Understanding of real-time software constraints, including deterministic execution, sampling, latency, timing and timestamping. Experience with RTOS environments is a plus.
• Test & Measurement Skills: Comfortable working hands‑on in the laboratory, including measuring frequency responses, vibration spectra, jitter and closed‑loop performance. You understand that a control model must be challenged and validated by measured data.
• Relevant Industry Experience: Experience in optical pointing, adaptive optics, spacecraft attitude control, stabilised optronics, robotics, precision motion control, drones or high‑performance mechatronic systems would be highly valued.
• Additional Skills: Experience with camera or detector in the loop sensing, centroiding, vibration measurement, spectral analysis, FPGA/SoC data paths or pointing error budget methodologies would be a strong advantage.
• Mindset: You combine strong theoretical foundations in control with a practical engineering mindset. You enjoy closing the loop on real hardware, diagnosing unexpected dynamic behaviour and turning experimental results into robust, deployable control solutions.
• English: Professional working proficiency in English, with the ability to write technical documentation and communicate effectively with international suppliers, partners and engineering teams.

Qui sont-ils ?

En entreprise, comme en musique, tout est une question de tempo. Depuis 2018, nous réunissons des consultant·e·s passionné·e·s, curieux·ses et ambitieux·ses, uni·e·s par une même conviction : mettre leur expertise au service des défis numériques, sectoriels et industriels de nos clients.
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