Field Engineering Intern - Built Robotics

In the summer of 2025, I completed an eleven-week field engineering internship at Built Robotics, where I worked at the intersection of mechanical engineering, operations, and early-stage startup execution under the guidance of co-founder Noah Ready-Campbell.

Deployed on-site in Oklahoma, Texas, and Minnesota, my initial goal was to support operations for autonomous piling robots. My responsibilities included generating pile plans, creating payloads, running the machines in the field, and assisting the Software and Hardware teams during operational interruptions. I also contributed to identifying workflow and reliability improvements across the system.

robots.mov

Main Project - Hydraulic Kitting Tool

Alongside daily operations, I focused on my main project of designing and fabricating two iterations of a hydraulic mini-excavator attachment to load baskets with 20,000+ lb of piles per day; this reduced 𝐚 3–4-𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐣𝐨𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐤, demostrated in the video on the right. The scope encompassed Onshape CAD, BOM and drawings, hydraulic planning, procurement, build, testing, and on-site validation with ECO/PLM control. The work required problem-solving across mechanical fit-ups, tolerances, hydraulic and welding interfaces, tool access, visibility, usability, and structural performance.

I wanted to find better ways to load piles from the bundles on the basket, and the opportunities were endless!

Onshape of Claw recording.mov

toolInAction.mov

I oversaw the entire process. The preliminary design work was straightforward, but every material then had to be procured, machined, and welded in sequence. The instructions needed to be highly specific to ensure that technicians could not misinterpret them and that all tolerances, interfaces, and tooling requirements were correctly met.

Kitting Bracket Weld + Assembly Drawing.pdf

Kitting Bracket Part Drawings.pdf

autonomous_claw.mp4

The claw is being used and beated up to this day, with autonomy being added to it.

Clip from: video.

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