Control and Automation Engineer, PAT Systems

Our client is an innovative and fast-growing technology company developing advanced optical communication and photonics-based systems for highly demanding applications.

As part of the growth of its engineering activities, we are looking for a Control and Automation Engineer, PAT Systems
.

Reporting to the R&D and Engineering teams, you will contribute to the development of Pointing, Acquisition and Tracking (PAT) systems for advanced Free-Space Optical (FSO) communication products.

PAT is a key function in laser communication systems: two terminals must identify each other, acquire the link and maintain a highly accurate beam alignment while the underlying platform is moving and subject to vibration. This role sits at the intersection of control theory, optics, precision mechanics, sensors and real-time embedded computing.

Working closely with the Pointing and Telecommunications Architect, you will own the control layer of the PAT chain from system models and control-law design to real-time implementation, bench testing and performance correlation. You will take your designs into hardware and validate their behaviour on real systems.

• Control Law Design: Design, tune and validate control laws for fine and coarse pointing loops. Apply loop shaping and state-space techniques, including notch filters, resonators, feed-forward control, disturbance rejection and handover between fast and slow steering stages.

• Precision Servo Control: Develop velocity and position-control functions for precision pointing mechanisms. Address non-ideal physical effects such as friction, stick-slip behaviour at low speed, actuator non-linearities, hysteresis, dead bands and multi-axis synchronisation.

• System Modelling & Simulation: Build plant models covering actuators, structural dynamics and sensors. Develop end-to-end simulations of the complete pointing chain, integrating realistic disturbance spectra, delays, measurement noise and platform dynamics. Run Monte Carlo analyses to assess robustness and performance probability.

• Kinematics & Geometry: Develop and maintain line-of-sight decomposition models, forward and inverse kinematics for steering mechanisms, calibration maps and reference-frame transformations from the platform down to the detector.

• Acquisition Strategy: Define and optimise search and acquisition strategies, including scan patterns, dwell times, detection thresholds in noisy environments, acquisition probability, expected acquisition duration and transition to stable closed-loop tracking.

• Pointing Error Budgets: Build, maintain and defend pointing-error budgets. Decompose the overall error into its contributors, allocate requirements across the control chain and substantiate performance through analysis and measurement.

• Real-Time Embedded Implementation: Implement control algorithms on target hardware, using bare-metal or RTOS-based embedded
  
  C. Contribute to real-time architecture decisions, including sampling rates, timing, latency budgets, synchronisation and time stamping.

• Bench Testing & Correlation: Develop and operate breadboards and test benches. Measure open-loop and closed-loop performance, frequency responses, disturbance rejection and residual jitter under controlled perturbations. Investigate model-to-test discrepancies and update models accordingly.

• System Integration: Work closely with optical, mechanical, electrical, embedded software and system engineering teams to ensure that controls, sensors, actuators and optical performance are integrated coherently.

Education:

Master’s degree or Engineering degree in Automation, Mechatronics, Robotics, Electrical Engineering or a related discipline. Equivalent practical experience may also be considered.

Professional Background:
You have designed, implemented and measured at least one closed-loop control system on real hardwarecsuch as a precision stage, robotic system, stabilised payload, drone, optical bench or motion-control system.

Technical Expertise:
Strong proficiency in MATLAB/Simulink or an equivalent control design and simulation environment. Solid command of classical and modern control techniques, including loop shaping, state-space control, stability-margin analysis, filtering, feed-forward control and disturbance rejection. Experience modelling dynamic systems, including actuators, structures, sensors, delays, noise and non-linearities. Ability to perform or support system identification and to correlate dynamic models with experimental measurements.

Practical…