Ariel Anders, PhD

Roboticist & Senior Software Engineer

Roboticist and Senior Software Engineer with an MIT CSAIL PhD and track record across Waymo, Robust.AI, and Civ Robotics. Specializing in onboard motion planning, reactive navigation, and state estimation, as well as multi-agent DevAI workflows and CI/CD automation.

Employment History

Senior Algorithms Developer — Civ Robotics

Sept 2025 - April 2026 | Civ Robotics

  • Developing core navigation and localization software for autonomous forklifts using C++, Python, and ROS 2.
  • Built and optimized IMU drivers and GPS filtering; implemented tilt-compensation logic to refine pose estimation.
  • Led root-cause analysis for critical localization drift, increasing fleet uptime significantly.
  • Enhanced CI/CD pipeline with python linting and authored AWS IoT certificate tools for containerized robotics software.

Independent AI Engineering & Research — Autonomous Fitness Ecosystem & AI DevOps Pipeline

Jan 2025 – present | Autonomous Fitness Ecosystem & AI DevOps Pipeline

Dedicated research & development period focused on agentic AI pipelines and telemetry infrastructure.

  • Real-Time Telemetry: Built Web Bluetooth & WebSocket pipelines streaming live sensor data to multi-client dashboards.
  • Agentic CI/CD: Architected automated PR review agents using RAG on Gemini to generate verified patches.
  • Contextual Intelligence: Engineered RAG systems to inject project docs and CI logs into AI prompts for targeted code reviews.
  • Technical Debt Management: Implemented automated extraction of technical debt into actionable GitHub issues.

Senior Software Engineer — Waymo

Nov 2022 – Dec 2024 | Waymo

Roboticist in the Planning team, developing onboard motion planning and decision-making software for safe self-driving technology.

  • Focused on improving pullover performance, decreasing user walking distance and congestion.
  • Applied software engineering, robotics, and machine learning to build autonomous driving capabilities.

Senior Roboticist & Tech Lead — Robust.AI

July 2019 – Oct 2022 | Robust.AI

First roboticist hire for building the world's first industrial-grade cognitive engine.

Senior Roboticist / Tech Lead (May 2021 – Oct 2022)

  • Tech lead for redesigning major architectural components for navigation spanning behavior, perception, and localization.
  • Integrated new hardware components into software frameworks and created novel behaviors.
  • Wrote production-quality software, tests, and documentation.

Roboticist (July 2019 – May 2021)

  • Developed robust real-time robot behaviors for indoor navigation in dynamic environments with contextual awareness.
  • Led social navigation work that helped secure Series A funding.
  • Established and executed testing procedures for robot navigation.

Researcher — Learning and Intelligent Systems, CSAIL MIT

2012 – 2019 | Learning and Intelligent Systems, CSAIL MIT

Advised by Leslie P. Kaelbling and Tomas Lozano-Perez.

  • Research focus: Robot manipulation for household helpers under considerable uncertainty due to inaccurate sensing and imperfect actuation.
  • Programmed Willow Garage PR2 robot using ROS, Python, and C++.
  • Developed scalable methods for solving complex planar manipulation problems.

Graduate Software Engineer Intern — Intel Corporation

Summer 2014 | Intel Corporation

  • Designed and documented design automation software using machine learning techniques.
  • Determined proper and efficient simulation points for future Intel Architecture based products.

Researcher — Bionics Lab, UC Santa Cruz

2010 – 2012 | Bionics Lab, UC Santa Cruz

Advised by Jacob Rosen.

  • Research focus: CAD/CAM applications in dentistry and autonomous control with mechanical systems.
  • Developed UI for robotic programs and a workflow for dental crowning procedures verified experimentally.

Education

PhD & SM in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (CSAIL) | 2012 – 2019

Minor in feedback and control systems with courses from Mechanical and AeroAstro. GPA: 4.9/5.0

Focused on reliable robotic manipulation under uncertainty using conformant planning to enable robust assembly in simulation and real-world experiments.

BS in Computer Engineering

University of California, Santa Cruz | 2008 – 2012

Regents Scholar. Capstone: improving performance of arithmetic functions for Oracle Database using C and vectorized hardware instructions (SSE). GPA: 3.96/4.0

Publications

  • Reliably Arranging Objects in Uncertain Domains (2018)
    Ariel S. Anders, Leslie P. Kaelbling, Tomas Lozano-Perez
    IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 1603–1610
    Publication Link
  • Policy Search for Multi-Robot Coordination under Uncertainty (2016)
    C. Amato, G. Konidaris, A. Anders, G. Cruz, J.P. How, L.P. Kaelbling
    The International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR), 35(14) (RSS Best Paper Finalist)
    Publication Link
  • Electrowetting-on-dielectric Actuation of a Vertical Translation and Angular Manipulation Stage (2016)
    D.J. Preston, A. Anders, B. Barabadi, E. Tio, Y. Zhu, D.R.A. Dai, E.N. Wang
    Applied Physics Letters, 109(24), 244102
    Publication Link
  • Active Fume Hood Sash Height Monitoring with Audible Feedback (2018)
    L.L. Becerra, J.A. Ferrua, M.J. Drake, D. Kumar, A.S. Anders, E.N. Wang, et al.
    Energy Reports, 4, pp. 645–652
    Publication Link
  • Programming Self-Driving Race Cars at MIT: Project-Based, Collaborative, Algorithmic Robotics for High School Students (2017)
    S. Karaman, A. Anders, M. Boulet, J. Connor, K. Gregson, W. Guerra, et al.
    IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC) / MIT BeaverWorks
    Publication Link
  • Visual Servoing (2017)
    A. Anders, S. Karaman
    EAAI-17: 7th Symposium on Educational Advances in Artificial Intelligence
    Publication Link
  • Dynamic Registration for Dental Robotics (2012)
    A.S. Anders, J. Rosen
    National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Technical Proceedings (UC Santa Cruz Bionics Lab)
    Publication Link

Skills

Autonomy: Motion planning, Behavior trees, Social navigation, TAMP, Mobile manipulation

Languages: C++, Python, TypeScript, Matlab, SQL, Bash

Tools & robotics: ROS 1 & 2, Docker, AWS IoT, Playwright, Linux, GitHub Actions, Gemini API, Unix / Mac / Windows

Selected Projects

Accessible Tech: Boop Light Detector

Developed 'Boop Light Detector' iOS app providing real-time audio pitch modulation and haptic feedback based on ambient light sensor data to assist visual impairment. Over 6,000 App Store downloads.

Impact: 6,000+ App Store Downloads | Tech Stack: iOS, Swift / Objective-C, CoreAudio, Haptic Engine

Campus Wellness: Light Therapy at MIT

Secured grants from the MindHandHeart Innovation Fund to install light therapy lamps across 10+ MIT campus libraries to combat Seasonal Affective Disorder with public checkout infrastructure.

Impact: 10+ Library Installations | Tech Stack: MindHandHeart Grant, MIT Libraries, Public Infrastructure

Lab Sustainability: Fume Hood Efficiency (LEAC)

Awarded $5,000 MIT Green Labs Innovation Award. Built network-connected acoustic sensor monitoring systems to reduce energy waste across MIT labs.

Impact: $5,000 Grant Award | Tech Stack: Sensors, Acoustic Feedback, Energy Monitoring, Energy Reports '18

Honors & Awards

  • Robohub’s 30 Women in Robotics You Need to Know About (2020) — Robohub
  • MIT Graduate Women of Excellence (2017) — MIT Office of Graduate Education
  • MIT Green Labs Innovation Award ($5,000 grant) (2017) — MIT Office of Sustainability
  • Beer Bots - CSAIL Research Highlights (2015) — MIT CSAIL: Awarded 2nd place for interactive multi-robot demonstration.
  • UC Santa Cruz Regents Scholarship (2008 – 2012) — UC Santa Cruz
  • UCEM at MIT Scholar (Inaugural Class) (2015) — University Center for Exemplary Mentoring at MIT

Teaching Experience

Instructor, Dynamics (ENGR 2340)

Fall 2017

Olin College of Engineering. Served as instructor for core course covering particle/rigid body dynamics and linear systems theory. Delivered lectures, led labs, and integrated MATLAB and Box2D physics simulator into curriculum.

Technical Instructor & Lead Associate Instructor

Summer 2016 – Summer 2017

MIT Beaver Works Summer Institute (BWSI). Taught Autonomous Mini Grand Prix course (RACECAR platform running ROS) for high school students. Led associate instructors, created lab curriculum, and authored published Model AI visual servoing materials.

Graduate Teaching Assistant

Spring 2015 – Spring 2017

MIT EECS & AeroAstro. TA for Robotics: Science and Systems (6.141/16.405), Intro to EECS (6.01), and Introductory Analog Electronics Lab (6.101). Guided students in sensing, computation, kinematics, state estimation, and system modeling.

Undergraduate Teaching Assistant & ACE Co-leader

Winter 2009 – Winter 2012

UC Santa Cruz. Course TA for Math 2 Stretch (College Algebra for Calculus) and Math 2 & 3 (College Algebra & Pre-calculus). Co-led Academic Excellence (ACE) sections for Math 19B (Calculus) and taught Girls in Engineering robotics workshops.

Frederick C. Hennie III Teaching Award

2017

MIT EECS Department Award recognizing extraordinary dedication and excellence in instruction.