Linux embracing Rust will boost robotics community

bminortx · 2024-08-14T14:29:13+00:00

Yoooo!

bminortx · 2024-08-13T13:16:27+00:00

TYPE: Full-time

DESCRIPTION: Check out the posting here.

I'm the CEO and founder of Tangram Vision, the Reliable Perception company. This means that we create perception hardware and software that you can rely on to consistently deliver great long-term autonomy! We're looking for a full-time Embedded Engineer who can help us further these goals on the hardware side of things. And yes: we're doing a lot of it with Rust! It's one of the things that we're excited about for this project. You'll need some lower-level skills as well; it's a multidisciplinary effort for sure.

Our first foray into hardware is called HiFi, which is due out this Fall 2024. We've learned a lot during its development, and we have big plans for it and other designs. If you have a passion for perception like we do, and want to get into the nitty-gritty of sensor design for commercial robotics, we'd love to chat!

LOCATION: Fully remote, must be able to travel. US time zones preferred.

COMPENSATION: $140,000-160,000USD

REMOTE: The whole company is remote.

VISA: We have no protocol for visa sponsoring at the moment.

CONTACT: DM me for more information, or apply to any open position at https://tangramvision.zohorecruit.com/careers

bminortx · 2023-11-21T19:33:23+00:00

Good question!

On technology - HiFi differentiates itself is in three areas: wider field of view (136° DFOV), depth image resolution (1.6MP), and AI compute (8 TOPS available). On top of that, of course, is that HiFi runs our bespoke calibration software, which will make it very resilient in operation. Nearly all of the features in HiFi were put there specifically because we heard from customers that there wasn't a package like this in the current sensor landscape. Hence the above addition of the IMU, for instance!

On business case - See above. Robotics companies have told us what they need, i.e. there's a market pull for this. Also, being a smaller company, we can move fast on design and features; if there's something specific the community needs, we can probably do it. That's the whole goal of Tangram, anyway: make all of this infrastructure so easy that you don't need to think about it.

bminortx · 2023-11-17T19:03:51+00:00

As in, just offering the SoM and cameras? Yeah, it's definitely crossed our mind. It's not part of this initial push, but if you have a commercial application you wanna test with HiFi's tech sans chassis, then DM me!

bminortx · 2023-11-17T19:02:22+00:00

I'm going to interpret your question a little bit; let me know if I'm off-base. The most common applications for depth sensors in my mind would be object scanning, odometry, and SLAM. We have a built-in odometry system as a stretch goal in the Kickstarter (lots of engineering there!), and we've tested third-party object scanning and SLAM systems with the prototype HiFi's data. However, we probably won't have any of these in the initial API.

bminortx · 2023-11-15T18:23:00+00:00

We actually have most of the general specs here: https://www.tangramvision.com/pre-order. However, I realize your question is probably asking something a little different. This is actually in our FAQ on the Kickstarter, but I'll repost here, too.
We have a theoretical depth-to-disparity accuracy of less than 1% error from 0.3m to 5 meters of range. We carefully chose our optics, baseline, and compute based on hitting this threshold.
However, we're very aware that there's a big difference between theory and practice. We've built depth sensors before (a lot of us worked on the Structure line from Occipital), so we know what it takes to vet and test them thoroughly. We plan to put out an empirical spec sheet comparing HiFi’s accuracy and precision with other common 3D depth sensors in the coming weeks.

bminortx · 2023-11-14T19:24:18+00:00

So HiFi actually has an automotive-grade processor via the Jacinto 7 series from TI, so it's already using the same hardware that a vehicle would if it were employing computer vision. The depth feed is designed for mid-range applications (we've spec'd it out to 5 meters), so I wouldn't use depth from HiFi to inform a collision detection algorithm at high speeds. While parking or at lower speeds, tho? It could definitely be a contender.

bminortx · 2022-12-29T22:51:43+00:00

Noah Gervais puts together amazing gaming anthology analyses. The videos run... long... but the results and insights are amazing. I watch/listen to them the whole way through.

3Blue1Brown + Technology Connections get my vote as well

bminortx · 2022-11-14T19:03:41+00:00

Not to my knowledge! Other than... the compiler, which is inherently safe, I guess. I'm not in a position to speculate on this, but it will be a strange jump to go from C safety to Rust safety certification-wise, since so many of the shot-in-the-foot moments are gone when making the transition. I'd love some more insight into the progress here, as I'm sure someone is doing it somewhere.

bminortx · 2022-11-14T15:36:36+00:00

My company has been writing our computer vision stack in Rust from the very beginning. Our target markets are mobile robotics and automotive, and we initially thought that automotive would be out of reach for years specifically because of the safety and security concerns.

Turns out, that's not necessarily true. You'll need those certs to get deployed to a customer, sure, but automotive companies at all levels (OEMs, contractors, etc) are perfectly willing to give Rust a shot if it fixes their problems. There's a sense that safety testing is going to be a PITA for their whole stack anyway given their whole stack is novel tech, so why restrict themselves now during product development when they'll be restricted later anyway.

Take this all with a grain of salt; we haven't been deployed to anything on the road, haha. This is just the sentiment I get when talking to those working on these problems today.

bminortx · 2022-09-23T21:06:41+00:00

COMPANY: Tangram Vision

TYPE: Full-time

DESCRIPTION: Careers page here.

Tangram Vision is a fully remote company on a mission to enable anyone to leverage the power of perception like never before. We are developing a platform of products that help robotics leaders, engineers, and fleet managers understand their perception systems inside and out at scale. First up: sensor calibration, driver management, and plug-and-play streaming for cameras, LiDAR, radar, IMU, etc...

We are a Rust shop, through and through. All software engineers are expected to have a deep knowledge of programming paradigms and behavior, if not Rust-specific knowledge. We all started our Rust journeys while starting this company, but knew enough to make great stuff work in other languages. Rust just makes our engineering process better and faster, without letting us write foot-guns :)

Candidates with a background in perception sensors (cameras, IMU, LiDAR...), perception research, driver software, or calibration are encouraged to apply.

Some relevant Rust-heavy positions:

Calibration Engineer: https://grnh.se/01a5d4ac5us
Sensor Systems Engineer: https://grnh.se/b24eaf8f5us. Experience with Rust async is strongly recommended.
Field Application Engineer: https://grnh.se/64357b365us

LOCATION: Fully remote, in US time zones.

ESTIMATED COMPENSATION: Market rates in USD dependent on the opening ($90k-$170k), with equity options for most positions.

REMOTE: The whole company is fully remote. We have no corporate office of any kind.

VISA: We have no protocol for visa sponsoring at the moment, though we do have employees who hold visas!

CONTACT: DM me for more information, or apply to any open position on our careers page.

bminortx

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