Liam Jennings
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Robotics Engineer | Embedded Systems & Software

I’m Liam — based in Seattle, currently pursuing my Master’s in Robotics Engineering at WPI. I work on embedded systems, real-time controls, and hardware validation — and I like making things well.

Showcased Projects

motion planning

Hybrid A*, PRM pursuit, and BiRRT disassembly across three graduate projects, each with a full write-up and report.

  • python
  • planning
details

coursework

Three projects from RBE 550 at WPI: Hybrid A* search for four vehicle models — from a holonomic point robot up to a car with trailer — with Reeds-Shepp connections; a pursuit simulation pitting a grid-based A* agent against a firetruck planning over a PRM; and a BiRRT planner that extracts the mainshaft from a manual transmission. Write-ups that actually explain the algorithms, not just log results.

valet ↗ wildfire ↗ transmission ↗

symbotic co-op

Hardware test engineering for autonomous warehouse robotics: HIL fixtures, validation, and automated tooling.

  • embedded
  • test
details

industry

Owned end-to-end hardware validation for embedded and electromechanical subsystems. Redesigned a hardware-in-the-loop traction motor fixture with closed-loop PID and MQTT-over-Ethernet for multi-month accelerated life testing, and built Python tooling for log parsing and time-series visualization with InfluxDB.

write-up ↗

formula electric

Embedded electronics for WPI’s competition EV: the inverter controller and a driver radio telemetry board.

  • stm32
  • can
  • pcb
details

open source

Designed and validated boards for the 2024–25 car: an STM32 mixed-signal inverter controller that conditions pedal inputs and commands the motor controller over CAN, and a Bluetooth driver-radio board for live telemetry — PCB design through firmware and vehicle integration.

write-up ↗ source ↗

quadrotor interception

Sliding mode control for a quadrotor autonomously chasing down an intruding UAV in simulation.

  • matlab
  • controls
details

coursework

A sliding mode controller regulating altitude, roll, and pitch, paired with trajectory prediction of the target, so the quadrotor can track, intercept, and return with an intruder inside a 10 m bounded airspace — staying stable through the disturbance of capture.

write-up ↗ source ↗

3-dof robot arm

A planar arm designed, analyzed, and actually fabricated to move a 500 g payload between poses.

  • robotics
  • cad
details

coursework

Full-stack arm design for RBE 501: forward kinematics via the Product of Exponentials, closed-form geometric inverse kinematics, trajectory generation, dynamics analysis, and motor selection. The course only required the analysis — we built the physical arm anyway.

write-up ↗

single image deraining

A convolutional variational autoencoder that removes raindrop blur from photographs.

  • python
  • deep learning
details

open source

A CVAE trained to reconstruct clean images from rain-degraded inputs, built as a machine learning course final project. The write-up walks through the architecture, the DeRaindrop dataset, and an honest look at where the reconstructions fell short.

write-up ↗ source ↗

Writing

Every write-up on the site, including the showcased projects above.