I joined VitiBot as an intern while completing my master's thesis, and was quickly offered a full-time job in the mechanical team 3 months in to my internship. Drawing on prior experience at Makara Cycles, CNRS, and Centrale Nantes, I contributed to several core components of the BAKUS robot platform. My first major assignment was the design of an intervine mower tailored to the BAKUS robot, where I was able to deliver a working prototype that achieved commercial success within a year. This success led to further iterations in collaboration with key industry stakeholders.

In addition to the mower, I led and contributed to several critical engineering efforts including the redesign of the 4-bar tool holder mechanism to use fully electric linear actuators in place of electro-hydraulic actuators, the redesign of battery casings in thermoplastic to double their lifespan, the integration of high power electric motors into existing robot hardware, and the redesign of various other stationary and active tools for the robot. With each of these endeavours, I honed my skills in FEA to validate not only my designs, but also the designs of my colleagues, and concurrently learned to use Python and ANSYS ACT to automate my tasks and visualise results.

My most impactful contribution was leading the complete redesign of the BAKUS robot chassis. This multi-year project was critical in preventing fatigue-related failures that could have triggered a full fleet recall. Under my technical leadership, we delivered a lighter, stronger chassis that preserved existing internal and external interfaces and could be seamlessly integrated with deployed units and manufacturing lines.