Precision Ai
UAV Flight Controls Engineer (ArduPilot)
Calgary, CAN
Sponsorship not specifiedDetected 195 days ago
PythonMATLABAlgorithmsPower ElectronicsSensorsControlsCollaborationActuators
About the role
- You will primarily work within an ArduPilot-based autopilot stack, but we are open to candidates with deep PX4 or similar autopilot experience who have also spent meaningful time working with ArduPilot.
- You'll spend your days inside the flight control firmware, designing and tuning control loops, analyzing flight logs, and iterating rapidly between bench tests, simulation, and live flights to improve platform behavior.
- Some days you'll be extending or modifying flight modes and controllers; other days you'll be in the field, adjusting parameters and validating performance under agricultural shock, vibration, wind, and dust.
Responsibilities
- Control System & ArduPilot Design Design and tune attitude, position, and altitude control loops for multirotor, fixed-wing, and/or VTOL UAVs, with a focus on low-altitude agricultural missions.
- Develop and modify flight control modules (e.g., attitude control, motors/mixers, flight modes, failsafes) within our ArduPilot-based stack to support Precision AI's airframes and mission profiles.
- Implement control logic that accounts for non-linear aircraft behavior, disturbances, saturation, delays, and sensor noise.
- Support integration of control algorithms into embedded implementations in partnership with firmware teams, ensuring real-time and resource constraints are respected.
- Modeling, Dynamics & Stability Analysis Build and maintain dynamic models of the UAV platform and subsystems (actuators, sensors, airframe responses) to inform control design and tuning.
- Perform stability analysis using time- and frequency-domain techniques (e.g., step responses, Bode plots) to converge on stable operating regions and robust tuning.
- Develop and validate assumptions around sensors and estimation (rate limits, latency, noise characteristics, update timing) and understand their impact on control performance.
- Document modeling assumptions, control architectures, and tuning rationale for repeatable and auditable engineering decisions.
- Simulation, Testing & Iteration Build and run simulations (including software-in-the-loop or equivalent) to de-risk control strategies before flight, while recognizing that final validation happens in the field.
- Design focused test plans for tuning and validation, including step responses, disturbance testing, and controlled flight envelope expansion.
Requirements
- Relevant Experience 3-6 years of controls or autopilot engineering experience with demonstrated ownership of UAV flight control or autopilot software that has flown on real aircraft.
- Proficiency with MATLAB, Python, or similar tools for control prototyping, simulation, and analysis.
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