Gimbal Design Engineer

T-Bird Drones is a stealth startup company that is pursuing the development of drone technologies.

An engineer is needed to support the design of a 3-Axis gimbal for the stabilization of a 50g drone payload. The stabilization system will be comprised of three Brushless DC (BLDC) motors with encoders, an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) on the payload mount, a control system processor, and the mechanical gimbal structure. The mechanical design of the 3-Axis Gimbal needs to place the center of gravity of the 50g payload into the center of three gimbal motor axes. Stabilization control will be provided through the use of a proportional, integral and derivative (PID) controller. A balanced gimbal design is critical to the proper operation of the payload stabilization system.

The objective of gimbal design is to create a fixed unmoving point that is not affected by the position of the gimbal’s arms. The gimbal construction should be very stiff, and the only motion that is acceptable is the rotation of the motor's shaft. Flexible arms or shaft bearing end play may seriously impact the quality of stabilization.

Required Qualifications:
• Bachelor’s degree in engineering or related field
• Exceptional problem-solving skills
• System level analysis, requirements, and design development
• Experience in control systems
• Experience with Inertial Measurement Units (IMU)
• Experience with rotary position sensors (encoders)
• BLDC motors
• Experience with CAD (e.g. FreeCAD, Autodesk Fusion)
• Good verbal and written communication skills in English

Preferred Qualifications:
• Advanced degree in engineering or related field
• Gimbal design and gimbal stabilization
• BLDC gimbal motor system design
• PID controllers
• 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing
• Modeling and simulation
• MATLAB Simulink

This position is an hourly job with deliverables every month. Successful execution of milestone objectives in monthly deliverables will determine if continued work will be required from the job candidate. The duration of this job can be long term with successful execution of milestones.

This position is fully remote with flexible work times. Occasional meetings in the Central Time Zone will be required.

Pay rate will be based on education, skills, and experience.