Robotics Integration Engineer

ABOUT THE ROLE

We are looking for a hands-on Robotics Integration & Secondary Development Engineer to help transform existing robot platforms into a customized WanPanel hospital service robot.

The engineer will evaluate available robot models, understand their hardware architecture and software capabilities, work with manufacturers to obtain the necessary SDKs, APIs, technical documentation, and customization support, and then integrate the selected platform with WanPanel’s applications and hospital workflows.

This role requires strong practical experience across robotics, system integration, software engineering, hardware modification, manufacturer coordination, and real-world deployment.

The ideal candidate should be able to determine which components of the original robot can be retained, which components need to be modified or replaced, and how the overall platform can be reconfigured into a reliable WanPanel-branded product.

PROJECT GOAL

The WanPanel hospital robot should be able to:

• Move safely throughout hospital hallways, patient areas, nursing stations, waiting rooms, and other approved locations.

• Approach or remain near the patient’s bedside when appropriate.

• Allow patients to submit requests through voice or touchscreen interaction.

• Help patients request water, bathroom assistance, pain medication, blankets, interpreter support, family updates, discharge information, cleaning assistance, or other hospital services.

• Immediately send patient requests to the appropriate nurse, case manager, department, or hospital staff member.

• Confirm to the patient that the request has been received.

• Escalate unanswered requests according to hospital-defined rules.

• Guide patients and visitors to approved hospital locations.

• Support multilingual communication.

• Integrate with WanPanel applications, dashboards, databases, APIs, notification systems, and hospital workflows.

A key objective is to reduce situations in which patients leave their beds to search for nurses or other hospital staff, which may increase the risk of falls.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Evaluate suitable robot models as the base platform for the WanPanel hospital robot.

• Compare each platform’s chassis, mobility, payload, battery, charging system, navigation, sensors, touchscreen, microphone, speakers, cameras, SDK, API, and customization capabilities.

• Work directly with distributors, and OEM/ODM partners to understand technical limitations and available customization options.

• Obtain and review manufacturer SDKs, APIs, communication protocols, system architecture documents, electrical diagrams, and hardware interface documentation.

• Perform secondary development on the selected commercial robot platform.

• Determine which original robot components should be retained, modified, replaced, or removed.

• Reconfigure the robot’s software, hardware, enclosure, touchscreen interface, voice system, branding, and workflow for WanPanel use.

• Integrate WanPanel branding, including the exterior appearance, startup screen, interface design, sounds, voice identity, and product naming.

• Replace or customize the original manufacturer-facing user experience so the final product operates as a WanPanel-branded robot.

• Integrate WanPanel applications and backend systems through APIs, WebSockets, MQTT, SDKs, or other supported communication methods.

• Connect the robot to WanPanel’s staff dashboards, patient-request system, notifications, user accounts, role permissions, and real-time databases.

• Integrate autonomous navigation, SLAM, localization, mapping, route planning, obstacle avoidance, and automatic docking.

• Adapt the navigation system for hospital hallways, patient rooms, nursing stations, elevators, automatic doors, waiting areas, and crowded environments.

• Integrate or modify LiDAR, depth cameras, ultrasonic sensors, IMUs, microphones, speakers, touchscreen displays, motor controllers, cameras, and other peripherals.

• Build bedside voice and touchscreen workflows for patient requests.

• Integrate speech recognition, text-to-speech, multilingual translation, and conversational AI.

• Develop safe confirmation and escalation logic for patient requests.

• Build monitoring tools for robot location, task status, request status, battery level, connectivity, hardware condition, and system errors.

• Support remote control, remote diagnostics, software updates, log collection, and fleet management.

• Test the robot around hospital beds, wheelchairs, IV poles, carts, staff members, patients, visitors, and other moving obstacles.

• Develop emergency stop, safe stopping, manual takeover, rerouting, and failure-recovery functions.

• Evaluate whether proposed hardware or structural modifications affect the robot’s original safety certifications or regulatory compliance.

• Document all modifications made to the original platform.

• Create technical architecture diagrams, integration documentation, testing procedures, deployment instructions, and troubleshooting guides.

• Build and demonstrate a working proof of concept.

• Support hospital pilot deployment, collect user feedback, identify problems, and continuously improve the robot.

• Train WanPanel staff and hospital personnel to operate and troubleshoot the robot.

• Coordinate between WanPanel engineers, robot manufacturers, industrial designers, mechanical engineers, hospital leadership, and clinical users.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics, Automation, or a related field.

• Experience performing secondary development, customization, integration, or modification of an existing commercial robot platform.

• Experience with ROS or ROS 2.

• Strong programming skills in Python and/or C++.

• Experience working with Linux-based robotic systems.

• Experience with autonomous mobile robots, SLAM, localization, mapping, route planning, and obstacle avoidance.

• Experience integrating third-party robot platforms through SDKs, APIs, serial communication, CAN bus, MQTT, WebSockets, or other interfaces.

• Ability to understand robot hardware architecture, sensor systems, motor systems, power systems, charging systems, and network communication.

• Experience integrating robotics hardware and software with cloud services, backend systems, databases, or web applications.

• Ability to troubleshoot problems across hardware, firmware, operating systems, networking, robotics software, backend services, and user interfaces.

• Ability to communicate with manufacturers and translate business requirements into clear technical requirements.

• Strong testing, documentation, communication, and problem-solving skills.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
Direct experience working with similar Chinese service robot platforms.

• Experience with OEM/ODM robot customization or white-label robot development.

• Experience modifying a commercial robot into a separately branded product.

• Experience with hospital, healthcare, hospitality, delivery, reception, or service robots.

• Experience reviewing Chinese-language robot SDKs, technical documents, electrical diagrams, or manufacturer specifications.

• Mandarin and English bilingual ability is highly preferred.

• Experience with LiDAR, depth cameras, stereo cameras, ultrasonic sensors, IMUs, motor controllers, embedded systems, and charging docks.

• Experience with computer vision, human detection, object detection, face-free user identification, or human-robot interaction.

• Experience with speech recognition, text-to-speech, multilingual voice systems, conversational AI, OpenAI APIs, or multimodal AI.

• Experience with React, TypeScript, Node.js, mobile applications, or web dashboards.

• Experience with PostgreSQL, Supabase, cloud platforms, real-time databases, and notification systems.

• Familiarity with hospital workflows, nurse call systems, patient communication platforms, or healthcare technology.

• Understanding of HIPAA-aware system design, privacy, security, audit logs, and role-based access control.

• Experience integrating robots with elevators, automatic doors, access-control systems, or building infrastructure.

• Familiarity with FCC, UL, ETL, NRTL, battery safety, electrical safety, and product certification requirements.

• Experience coordinating with overseas manufacturers, industrial designers, mechanical factories, and supply-chain partners.

INITIAL DEVELOPMENT PHASES

Phase 1: Platform Evaluation

• Evaluate suitable robot models.

• Review SDK, API, hardware interfaces, navigation capabilities, customization restrictions, and manufacturer support.

• Recommend the most suitable base platform.

Phase 2: WanPanel Integration

• Connect the selected robot to WanPanel’s backend, applications, dashboards, and notification system.

• Build the patient bedside request workflow.

• Customize the touchscreen, voice interaction, interface, and branding.

Phase 3: Hardware and Product Reconfiguration

• Modify or redesign the exterior enclosure when necessary.

• Integrate additional sensors, displays, microphones, speakers, cameras, communication modules, or safety components.

• Convert the platform into a consistent WanPanel-branded robot product.

Phase 4: Hospital Testing

• Test navigation and interaction in a simulated hospital environment.

• Validate bedside workflows, staff notifications, escalation logic, battery performance, and safety behavior.

• Prepare the robot for a limited hospital pilot.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

Within the first several months, the engineer should be able to:

• Complete a technical comparison robot platforms.

• Recommend the best base model for WanPanel’s hospital use case.

• Identify the SDK, API, hardware, certification, and customization requirements.

• Produce a clear secondary-development and system-integration plan.

• Complete a working proof of concept using a selected robot platform.

• Integrate the robot with WanPanel software and real-time hospital workflows.

• Demonstrate safe indoor navigation and bedside patient-request functionality.

• Define the hardware, software, industrial-design, safety, and manufacturing changes required for a WanPanel-branded version.

• Prepare the system for a limited hospital pilot.