Hardware Test Engineering Co-op at Symbotic
Work ·Overview
From July to December 2025, I worked as a Hardware Test Engineering Co-op at Symbotic in Boston. Symbotic builds autonomous warehouse robotics systems for large-scale logistics operations.
What I Did
I owned end-to-end execution of hardware validation tests for embedded and electromechanical subsystems—developing test procedures, running tests, and documenting failure criteria and results to support team-level verification and validation efforts.
Key projects included:
-
HIL Test Fixture Redesign: Redesigned a hardware-in-the-loop traction motor test fixture with closed-loop PID control and MQTT-over-Ethernet communication to support reliable multi-month accelerated life testing.
-
Automated Tooling: Built Python tools for log parsing and time-series visualization using InfluxDB. Maintained tooling under Git with unit tests and CI/CD pipelines.
-
Hardware Debugging: Diagnosed hardware faults and characterized subsystem behavior using oscilloscopes and embedded instrumentation.
What I Learned
This role gave me experience working on hardware validation at scale—where test reliability and documentation matter as much as the test results themselves. Building tooling that other engineers depend on reinforced the importance of writing maintainable code with proper tests and version control, even for internal tools.