At the Robot Lab, we are dedicated to creating innovative applications from leftover wood. Our mission involves transforming waste wood from buildings—such as doors, window frames, and beams—into valuable resources. One of the most challenging aspects of this process is obtaining all the necessary data from the wood in the waste streams in an automated way. This process includes, collecting visual, weight, dimensions, mechanical properties, metal-detection etc.

The Robot Lab research team has made progress in automating the wood intake process, designing both hardware and software to efficiently gather and manage this data.

This internship focuses on enhancing the system by adding software components to automate and integrate new hardware equipment. The hardware includes conveyor belt systems, a visual inspection station, a 3D scanning station, and a weight measurement system, which are set up by other team members. Your primary responsibility will be developing the software that manages the workflow. While existing components like a Database API for data storage and a message broker for tasks such as scanning or capturing images are already in place, much more remains to be developed, and your contribution will be essential in achieving these goals.

Your assignment

As an intern, your responsibilities will include:

• Collaborating with a researcher to develop the software logic, components and testing them
• Identify and resolve existing workflow issues, (we can guide you to get there quicker)
• Create custom libraries for hardware equipment if no SDK is available.
• Develop a Gateway application to enable communication with complementary services, such as AI models or data analysis tools, that integrate with the Workflow Manager Application.
• Helping with deployment of the software on the lab local server

Knowledge and skills required

• Passion for exploring beyond your domain of expertise
• Solid programming skills, especially in OOP patterns
• Being comfortable with Git, Shell, Unix
• Understanding of multithreading or multiprocessing
• Software deployment skills (e.g., Docker, Docker Compose): This is an advantage but not necessary
• Some knowledge of network protocols (e.g., TCP/Socket, MQTT, HTTP)
• Knowledge of Python programming language is big advantage
• Industrial automation knowledge (e.g., working with PLCs): Not mandatory
• Strong problem-solving skills
• Ability to work collaboratively in a vibrant team

Company profile

The Robot Lab is part of the Amsterdam University of Applied Science (Hogeschool van Amsterdam). The Robot Lab explores the connection between sustainable materials (like urban waste streams) en digital production processes. Knowledge is developed in relation to three profiling themes of the Faculty of Technology: Smart Industry, Circular Transition and Designing Future Cities. This translates for example to computational design methods, digital fabrication processes with industrial robot arms, CNC milling, large scale 3D printing in 6 degrees of freedom and many more.