# Xavier Hubbard > Robotics and Controls Engineer Location: Somerville, Massachusetts, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/xavierhubbard Boston/NYC-based Roboticist/EE with a wide range of experience and a knack for learning things I don't know. I specialize in state estimation, sensor fusion, and optimal control. My interests include autonomous robots, mobile robots, robot perception, embedded systems design, optimal control, machine learning, distributed computing, power electronics, wireless power transfer, quantum computing, .... this list really could just keep going. I lead with empathy in all things. ## Work Experience ### Senior Flight Control Software Engineer @ Guardian Agriculture Jan 2024 – Present | Woburn, Massachusetts, United States • Retuned PID gains on a 500-lb quadrotor by developing a post-flight response-identification tool to estimate loop dynamics; reduced cross-track error by 50% and hover RMS error by 40% • Built a vibration health-monitoring tool that computes power spectral density (PSD) and aggregates vibration metrics; enabled per-airframe trending and fleet-wide comparisons for anomaly detection • Diagnosed hardware/software anomalies across the system; improved autonomous flight performance, vibration, and motor-controller reliability • Maintained a PX4 fork; added a safe-RTL auto-land mode and adapted flight-controller software for large-airframe operation • Built a PX4 offboard controller for minimum-snap trajectory tracking • Mentored junior developers in advanced autonomy techniques and proper coding practices like modern C++ ### Robotics and Autonomous Control Systems Engineer - Associate Staff @ MIT Lincoln Laboratory Jan 2023 – Jan 2024 | Lexington, Massachusetts, United States • Software lead for a visual-inertial navigation system enabling a UAV swarm to track multiple moving targets in GPS-denied environments • Developed magnetometer and barometer measurement factors with analytically derived Jacobians • Built a Bayesian hyperparameter-optimization pipeline to tune noise covariances; reduced per-kilometer drift by 60% • Implemented an MCMC-based data-association algorithm for target tracking with intermittent detections • Authored a winning proposal for a funded collaboration on certifiable optimization ### Research Assistant with NEU-RAL @ Northeastern University College of Engineering Jan 2022 – Jan 2023 | Boston, Massachusetts, United States Developed a C++ library to perform graph-based, distributed second-order optimization using a novel algorithm that exceeds baseline solver performance • Resolved persistent Kalibr failures by instituting a rigorous data-collection protocol (excitation-rich motions, full target coverage, exposure/time-sync checks), enabling successful calibration of an 8-camera + IMU rig. • Assisted in the algorithmic development and testing of "Mobile MoCap", a retroreflector-based motion capture system presented at 2023 IEEE Conference on Automation Science and Engineering ### Teaching Assistant @ Northeastern University College of Engineering Jan 2022 – Jan 2022 | Boston, Massachusetts, United States Teaching assistant for the classes Robot Sensing and Navigation ● Coordinated with Professor Hanumant Singh to run lab times, office hours and tutorials ● Helped students gain familiarity with Linux Operating Systems, Git, ROS, GPS & RTK GPS data processing, IMU data processing, Image Processing, and Visual SLAM ● Gave lectures on relevant materials as needed ● Performed code reviews and grading of student projects Teaching assistant for Mobile Robotics ● Coordinated with Professor David Rosen to run lab times, office hours and tutorials ● Lectured and tutored students on the fundamentals of Mobile Robotics including SLAM, Kalman Filters and Lie Theory ### Robotics Engineering Co-op @ Vecna Robotics Jan 2021 – Jan 2021 | Waltham, Massachusetts, United States ● Designed PCB For communicating with generic encoder interfaces ● Upgraded and Maintained Altium Parts/PCB Libraries to Altium 365 ● Design ROS Package for robot localization using a local lidar and deployable field targets with 2mm accuracy ● Assisted in general test and development for robotic prototyping ### Senior Electrical Engineer @ SparkCharge Jan 2019 – Jan 2020 | Somerville, Massachusetts, United States • Conducted systems testing and validation on 20 kW battery pack • Assisted in launching a pilot program for a portable EV-charger allowing early customers to provide critical feedback in real world situations ### Electrical Engineer @ Cognex Corporation Jan 2018 – Jan 2019 | Natick, MA • Architected and released a modular test-fixture platform (reusable PCBs and firmware); eliminated one-off PCB designs and enabled plug-and-test fixture builds, shifting the schedule bottleneck from hardware to test software • Developed interrupt-driven I²C, SPI, and CAN firmware modules, applying DMA and priority-based scheduling to ensure reliable, low-overhead communication with a variety of sensors and actuators like motors, servos, high-speed cameras, high-voltage flashes, and small analog sensors • Designed custom, bare-metal Modbus implementation over RS-485 with a novel auto-addressing solution to enable plug-and-play PC-to-board messaging • Designed numerous PCBs in Altium with various functionalities to support the new modular test framework • Received “Key Cogtributor Award” for design innovation as part of team developing new camera lens focusing fixtures that increased test throughput tenfold ### Electrical Engineer @ ClearMotion Jan 2017 – Jan 2018 | Woburn, MA ● Debugged and implemented containment measures for failed production PCBs ● Implemented test fixtures for Validation and Verification of production PCBs ● Performed Electrical System verification on new vehicles equipped with ClearMotion Activalves ● Created wiring harnesses for the implementation of the ClearMotion Activalves in OEM vehicles ### Electrical Engineer @ Pi. Jan 2016 – Jan 2017 | San Francisco Bay Area • Designed and released a six-layer PCB for a 10-MHz wireless power transfer system • Redesigned and prototyped analog measurement solutions for 10-MHz signals; reduced component count and cost of circuitry by more than 50% while improving measurement accuracy by 20% • Brought product from prototype to production with small 6-person engineering team ### Electrical Engineer @ Lucid Motors Jan 2015 – Jan 2016 | Menlo Park ● Conducted High Voltage battery pack junction box construction and maintenance ● Constructed portable test bed of vehicle electronic systems for experiment and debugging ● Worked with small team to port Battery Management System (BMS) code base to AUTOSAR Platform ● Designed, maintained, and updated several critical BMS algorithms including predictive cell modeling, SOC estimation, active power limits, and cell balancing calculations ### Power Electronics Extern @ Linear Technology Jan 2015 – Jan 2015 | Milpitas, CA Characterized, tested, and validated a 60W dual output buck converter ### Research Assistant @ MIT LEES (Lab for Electronic and Electromotive Systems) Jan 2014 – Jan 2014 • Designed, prototyped and constructed drive circuitry for an electric scooter • Designed, prototyped and mass constructed a DIY Speaker kit demo • Co-created and implemented a novel method of interfacing Pebble Smartwatches and PSoC • Assisted in remodel and refit of student labkits for Power Electronics Lab Class ### Lab Assitant @ MIT EECS Department Jan 2013 – Jan 2014 Assisting students with projects and assignments during lab hours ### Research Assistant @ MIT LNS Jan 2012 – Jan 2013 Conducting research and analysis of fast neutron background events in neutrino oscillations experiments. Tasks included: Assisting in design and construction a Time Projection Chamber to detect fast neutron events Individual analysis of large data from prototype detector in Chooz, France ## Education ### Bachelor's Degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology ### Master of Science - MS in Robotics Northeastern University ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/xavier-hubbard-32418016 --- Source: https://flows.cv/xavierhubbard JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/xavierhubbard/resume.json Last updated: 2026-03-31