Robotics Engineer Intern - SLAM

Do you want to dive in the fast-growing industry of drones and get a rewarding experience in a dynamic scale-up environment? 

At Flyability, we believe that robots should be sent into hazardous places and dangerous environments instead of humans. To support our belief, we created Elios, the world’s first collision-tolerant flying robot that can safely enter, survey, and inspect confined spaces so that people don’t have to. With more than 130 employees, Flyability is the pioneer in the UAS indoor inspection industry. Joining Flyability is not just taking on a new job; it is seizing the opportunity to improve the lives of millions of people and contribute to the future of robotics.

To complete our creative and dynamic team in Lausanne, we are seeking a:

Robotics Engineer Intern - SLAM (100%)
Ideal starting date: 01.08.2026

Your role:

In this role, you’ll contribute to one of the key challenges in autonomous robotics: enabling robots to reliably localize themselves within previously visited environments.

You will work on our next-generation SLAM system with a focus on global relocalization for autonomous drones. Your mission will be to research, benchmark, and develop state-of-the-art approaches for place recognition and map relocalization under real-world conditions, while ensuring robustness against ambiguity and incorrect matches.

Working directly on the Elios 3 platform, you will bridge state-of-the-art research with real-world deployment and contribute to core technologies enabling long-term autonomy.

What you will own: 

• Global Relocalization: Research, benchmark, and implement state-of-the-art approaches for relocalization into previously built maps.
• Place Recognition: Investigate visual, geometric, and learning-based methods for place recognition and evaluate probabilistic approaches such as particle filters for robust global localization.
• False Positive Detection: Develop methods to identify and reject incorrect localization candidates and improve system robustness against perceptual aliasing and ambiguous environments.
• SLAM Integration & Validation: Integrate your work into an existing SLAM framework and evaluate performance using simulation and real-world datasets.
• Performance Analysis: Define and evaluate metrics such as localization accuracy, robustness, computational efficiency, and failure modes.

Your profile:

• Currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Robotics, Computer Science, or a related engineering field
• Previous experience in robotics, SLAM, localization, computer vision, or related fields
• Strong programming skills in C++ and Python
• Familiarity with concepts such as state estimation, mapping, visual localization, place recognition, or probabilistic robotics
• Experience with modern robotics and machine learning approaches is a plus
• Experience with robotics hardware is a plus
• Comfortable reading and implementing ideas from scientific literature
• Hands-on mindset with strong analytical skills and curiosity for solving open-ended research challenges
• Curious, motivated, and eager to work in a real-world environment
• Fluent in English. French or other languages are a plus

Flyability is a Swiss company with over 10 years of experience that values independent thinking combined with a collaborative spirit. Every day, you will have the opportunity to share your ideas and contribute to solving problems. We all work together, and each voice is considered as we collaborate to achieve our goals.

Ready to join?
We know the confidence gap and impostor syndrome can get in the way of meeting spectacular candidates, so please don't hesitate to apply —regardless of your past experience or resume, we'd love to hear from you.

Automated Screening Notice: Please note that Flyability uses automated eligibility questions as part of our initial screening process. If your application does not meet these mandatory requirements, it will be automatically excluded from further consideration. If you submit an application and believe it was incorrectly excluded by the system, you have the right to request a manual review. Please reach out to our HR team at [email protected] to request human intervention.