Internship - Embodied AI & Humanoid Robotics

merl; Cambridge (MA); On-site; USD 67,000 - 89,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation stipend

Travel covered to and from MERL

Charlie Card for local commuting

Health insurance after 90 days

Immigration support

Weekly research talks

Job summary

Join our cutting-edge research team at MERL to help advance Embodied AI and Humanoid Robotics. As a research intern, you will develop AI technologies enabling humanoid robots to understand, reason, and interact with the physical world through complex manipulation and tool-use tasks, with a goal of publishing at premier AI and robotics conferences.

Projects include embodied AI for manipulation, VLA models, long-horizon planning with WAM, and learning from demonstrations, teleoperation, and

Qualifications

• Strong research experience in robotics, embodied AI, ML, CV or related fields.
• Experience with deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch or JAX, and strong Python programming skills.
• Familiarity with Vision-Language-Action models, Foundation Models or multimodal AI, RL or imitation learning, robot manipulation, motion planning or control, and agentic AI for robotics.

Responsibilities

• Embodied AI for dexterous manipulation, assembly, and tool use.
• Vision-Language-Action models and Foundation Models for robotic control.
• World-Action Models for long-horizon planning and decision making.
• Learning from human demonstrations, teleoperation, and autonomous data collection.
• Sim-to-real transfer, reinforcement learning, and real-world robot deployment.

Skills

Robotics research

PyTorch

Python

Tools

ROS/ROS 2

Isaac Sim

MuJoCo

Genesis

Jetson GPUs

Job description

Join our cutting-edge research team to help advance the next generation Embodied AI and Humanoid Robotics. As a research intern, you will develop AI technologies that enable humanoid robots to understand, reason, and interact with the physical world through complex manipulation, assembly, and tool-use tasks. This is a unique opportunity to contribute to impactful research with the goal of publishing at leading AI and robotics conferences.

What You'll Work On

Depending on your background and interests, projects may include:

• Embodied AI for dexterous manipulation, assembly, and tool use
• Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models and Foundation Models for robotic control
• World-Action Models (WAM) for long-horizon planning and decision making
• Learning from human demonstrations, teleoperation, and autonomous data collection
• Sim-to-real transfer, reinforcement learning, and real-world robot deployment

What We're Looking For

We are seeking highly motivated graduate students with:

• Strong research experience in robotics, embodied AI, machine learning, computer vision, or related fields
• Experience with deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch or JAX, and strong Python programming skills
• Familiarity with one or more of the following:
  • Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models
  • Foundation Models or multimodal AI
  • Reinforcement learning or imitation learning
  • Robot manipulation, motion planning, or control
  • Agentic AI systems for robotics

Preferred qualifications:

• Hands-on experience with humanoid or loco manipulators (e.g., Unitree G1)
• Experience with teleoperation systems (e.g., Pico, Sonic)
• Experience with robotics simulators (e.g., Isaac Sim, MuJoCo, Genesis)
• Familiarity with ROS/ROS 2 and real-world robot experimentation
• Familiarity with policy deployment on edge AI devices (e.g., Jetson GPUs)

Internship Details

• Duration: Approximately 4 months
• Start Date: Flexible
• Location: Cambridge, MA
• Objective: Conduct high-impact research leading to publications at premier AI and robotics conferences (e.g., CoRL, RSS, ICRA, IROS, NeurIPS, ICML)

The pay range for this internship position will be 6-8K per month.

Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs, Inc. "MERL" provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, MERL complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.

MERL expressly prohibits any form of workplace harassment based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status. Improper interference with the ability of MERL’s employees to perform their job duties may result in discipline up to and including discharge.

Working at MERL requires full authorization to work in the U.S and access to technology, software and other information that is subject to governmental access control restrictions, due to export controls. Employment is conditioned on continued full authorization to work in the U.S and the availability of government authorization for the release of these items, which might include without limitation, obtaining an export license or other documentation. MERL may delay commencement of employment, rescind an offer of employment, terminate employment, and/or modify job responsibilities, compensation benefits, and/or access to MERL facilities and information systems, as MERL deems appropriate, to ensure practical compliance with applicable employment law and government access control restrictions.

In addition to base pay, interns receive a relocation stipend, covered travel to and from MERL, and a monthly Charlie Card for local commuting. Interns are invited to participate in weekly social gatherings and professional development opportunities, including research talks by both internal and external speakers. Interns who meet the 90-day waiting period are also eligible for health insurance coverage. MERL provides immigration support for qualified candidates as needed. Employment is considered “at‑will,” and the Company reserves the right to modify base salary or any other compensation program at any time, including for reasons related to individual performance, departmental or Company performance, and market conditions.