---
title: 'Summer Robotics Hardware Intern at Yondu AI'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/summer-robotics-hardware-intern-yondu-ai-gardena-xym7b8rebrb4'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-05'
---

# Summer Robotics Hardware Intern at Yondu AI

- **Company:** Yondu AI
- **Location:** Gardena, CA
- **Compensation:** $4k–$10k
- **Employment:** internship
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-03-05
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-05
- **Apply:** https://jobs.gem.com/yondu-ai/am9icG9zdDpfctb3LAemdybth0leYV5i

## Job description

For summer of 2026. Note: We will provide a housing stipend but not relocation assistance.

## What You’ll Do

- Design and integrate electrical and mechanical systems.
- Work with cutting edge humanoid robots in real deployments.
- Rapidly prototype, and iterate based on changing demands.
- Collaborate with software and simulation teams to meet their needs.

## What We’re Looking For

- Experience with electromechanical systems or robotics.
- Excellent mechanical intuition, you understand how things move, fail, and improve.
- Experience with hand tools and disassembly, assembly, and documentation of systems.
- Skills in CAD and embedded systems.
- Strong hands-on engineering and troubleshooting ability.
- A portfolio and/or an independent project or 2 would be ideal to display real skills and end to end management of a project.
- Experience with CAD software specifically Fusion360, KiCAD, and the .urdf format.
- Experience with typical humanoid systems (BLDC actuators, CANbus, lithium based batteries).

## Why This Role

- Direct impact on company results.
- Getting experience with cutting edge systems.
- Learn a variety of prototyping methods and end to end project ownership.

## About Yondu AI

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Yondu provides drop-in, general-purpose humanoid robots for 3PL warehouses to automate high-turnover labor with a fast, ROI-positive, brownfield deployment.
- **Entity Type**: Private (seed stage, Y Combinator W24)
- **Headquarters**: Gardena, California, USA
- **Founded**: 2023 (Dec 2023 founded at MIT, operational by 2024)
- **Founders**: Michael Chen (CEO) and Tahmid Jamal (CTO)

## Core Business
- Primary industry: Warehouse automation, logistics robotics, embodied AI.
- Target customers: Mid-sized 3PL (third-party logistics) warehouses (B2B, SMB to enterprise).
- Mission: Revolutionizing physical labor by building the robot workforce of the future, empowering businesses to lower operating costs, eliminate turnover, and increase efficiency.

## Products & Services
- **Humanoid Robots + Teleoperation System (ULTRON)**: A low-latency remote teleoperation system that puts robots to work immediately in customer operations, collecting data for autonomy.
- **Warehouse Management Software (WMS) Integration**: Routes orders from the warehouse WMS to Yondu’s platform, instructing robots where to go and what to pick.
- **Autonomy Stack (YGM – Yondu General Manipulation)**: A manipulation policy that gradually takes over picking and placing tasks, learning from teleoperation data to drive toward full autonomy.
- **Brownfield Bin-Picking Solution**: The first fully automated brownfield bin-picking system that works within existing warehouse layouts without costly infrastructure changes.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed.
- **Key Metric**: Total funding raised – seed round closed in May 2024 after YC W24 cohort; amount undisclosed.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Y Combinator; design partnership and pilot contract with Shipbots (a major West Coast 3PL).
- **Growth Signals**: Founded Dec 2023 at MIT; participated in PROD 3.0 and YC W24 cohorts; opened HQ in Gardena, CA (June 2025); demonstrated comprehensive teleoperated bin-picking system (Sep 2025); landed first pilot contract; headcount growing with multiple founding engineers and robot operators.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Brownfield-first approach**: No need for new infrastructure or retrofits – robots adapt to existing warehouse layouts and processes.
- **Affordable price point**: Mid-sized warehouses can afford automation; claims to cut labor costs by up to 75%.
- **Data flywheel**: Teleoperation (ULTRON) enables immediate value while collecting real-world data to train autonomy (YGM), creating a self-improving system.
- **Full-stack robotics**: In-house teleoperation, WMS integration, and manipulation stack – a platform-application model scalable to other tasks (decanting, replenishment, packing).

## Strategic Focus
- Current priorities include scaling the Shipbots partnership, proving ROI in live warehouse operations, expanding the robot’s task repertoire beyond bin-picking, and building a foundation model for general-purpose manipulation.
- Long-term vision: Become the platform for any brownfield robotics automation, enabling other companies to automate any task with any robot.

## Why Work Here
- **Team & Culture**: Led by two MIT co-founders; strong research talent (MIT CSAIL Postdoc, Georgia Tech PhD, industry veterans in RL/teleoperation). Culture emphasizes continuous learning, keeping up with SOTA research, and tackling one of the hardest problems in robot learning.
- **Compensation & Benefits**: 401(k) matching (100% of first 3%, 50% of next 2%); comprehensive medical/dental (100% premiums covered for employee and dependents); unlimited PTO plus dedicated sick leave.
- **Work Environment**: Based in Los Angeles (Gardena) – hands-on, in-person collaboration with local customers; roles include robotics software, mechatronics, and business development.
- **Growth Opportunity**: Early-stage startup with a chance to shape the product and technology from the ground up, working on real-world embodied AI deployments.

## Sources
1. [yondu.ai](https://www.yondu.ai/)
2. [yondu.ai/about](https://www.yondu.ai/about)
3. [yondu.ai/careers](https://www.yondu.ai/careers)
4. [ycombinator.com/companies/yondu](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/yondu)
5. [ycombinator.com/companies/yondu/jobs](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/yondu/jobs)

## Other roles at Yondu AI

- [Summer Robotics Hardware Intern (Copy)](https://feeny.ai/job/summer-robotics-hardware-intern-copy-yondu-ai-gardena-rtmmqv94a38g) — Gardena, CA
- [Founding Business Development Representative, Robotics](https://feeny.ai/job/founding-business-development-representative-robotics-yondu-ai-gardena-nn7kxtde6ef8) — Gardena, CA
- [Senior Robotics Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-robotics-engineer-yondu-ai-gardena-r9phjzqqd7sg) — Gardena, CA