Leo FrancisRobotics Software Engineer
Location
London, United Kingdom
Email
leojfrancis.now​@gmail.com
LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/leojfrancis/

Robotics engineer specialising in real-time control systems, embedded communication, and distributed robotic architectures. Experienced in low-latency control systems, ROS-based robotic systems, microcontroller integration, and scalable IoT infrastructure. Published researcher in interoperable IoT architectures with strong expertise in real-time software, robotics and control systems.

Professional Experience
Lead Robotics Software Engineer, Osmosis.ai
Oct 2024 – present | London
  • •Architected a real-time multi-input vehicle control stack for autonomous retrofit, integrating CAN bus and Protocol Buffers with AI inference on NVIDIA Jetson AGX, achieving deterministic steering, throttle, and braking with sub-20 ms end-to-end latency.
  • •Developed system-level validation workflows (integration, stress, component and hardware-in-the-loop testing), identifying and resolving 10+ critical faults before deployment.
  • •Developed deterministic CAN control libraries for Xiaomi CyberGear and Damiao motors (QDD (Quasi-Direct Drive)).
  • •Created G-code preprocessing wrappers for in-house CNC/​3D printing (GRBL-based systems).
  • •Deployed robot arm control pipelines on Banana Pi (ARM SBC) for rapid feasibility prototyping.
  • •Designed and iterated 5+ custom PCBs (GPS, IMU, CAN, motor control) for autonomous vehicle and robotics applications.
    • Robotics Lab Assistant, Middlesex University
    May 2024 – Sep 2024 | London
  • •Assembled and integrated MIRTO mobile robots, achieving 98% hardware-software deployment success rate.
  • •Programmed and tuned robot control systems, reducing autonomous performance error by 20%.
  • •Supported robotics lab infrastructure and debugging of ROS-based robot systems.
    • Software Engineer, International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT)
    Jun 2022 – Aug 2023

    Promoted within 12 months due to technical leadership in IoT architecture design.

  • •Architected a distributed IoT server managing 250+ nodes across large-scale deployment environments.
  • •Designed a node management framework supporting heterogeneous communication (MQTT, HTTP, custom TCP), increasing deployments by 30%.
  • •Accelerated intern guidance and task delegation, improving team efficiency by 20% through strategic planning.
  • •Implemented Dockerized CI/​CD pipelines, reducing deployment time by 60%.
  • •Performed stress and load testing to ensure highly available and fault-tolerant systems, resulting in a 25% improvement in operational efficiency.
    • Junior Software Engineer, Launchspace
    Sep 2019 – Apr 2021

    Promoted internally, demonstrating consistent performance and leadership.

  • •Maintained high-availability backend systems (Django, PostgreSQL, Redis) supporting 500+ concurrent users.
  • •Improved system performance through caching, load balancing, and optimised database queries.
  • •Implemented DevOps workflows, reducing release cycles by 25%.
  • •Contributed to developing responsive interfaces and resolving issues, reducing bug resolution time by 10%.
    • Skills / Area of Expertise
    Frameworks: ROS, RTOS, OpenCV, KiCAD (PCB Design), CAN Bus, Protocol Buffers, ZMQ, Django, Flask, FastAPI (Software APIs for hardware integration), OM2M, ML integration, and Data Processing.
    Hardware: Embedded Linux (Jetson AGX, Banana Pi, Raspberry Pi)(ARM SBCs), Microcontrollers (NXP Automotive, ESP32, RP2040, PIC, ATmega), ABB, Universal Robots.
    Development: Linux, Bash, Docker, Networking, Testing, Git (Version control), GitOps, Jenkins (CI/CD), PostGIS, MongoDB (Databases), Grafana (Data Dashboards), Nginx (Reverse Proxies and load-balancing).
    Programming: Python, C/C++, JavaScript, MATLAB.
    Project & Interpersonal: Lean Six Sigma, Agile (Process Improvement), Technical Documentation, LaTeX, Office 356 suite (PowerPoint, Excel), Atlassian suite (JIRA, Confluence), Team Leading.
    Education
    Masters in Robotics, Middlesex University⁠
    Sep 2023 – Oct 2024

    Projects and Research: Investigation into Mapping the Human Arm with a Robot Arm, Image Processing and Recognition for the uno card game. Industrial Robot Use cases with ROS interfaces.

    Bachelors in Electronics and Communications Engineering, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University
    Jun 2018 – Jul 2022

    Projects and Research: Digital Audio Synthesis On Single Board Computers, Satellite Data Reception using SDR, Design and Implementation of Navigation and Real-time Communication in a UAV.

    Publications
    Exploratory Study of oneM2M-based Interoperability Architectures for IoT: A Smart City Perspective, IEEE ICSA 2024 (International Conference on Software Architecture)
    Apr 2024

    An exploratory investigation of three prominent open-source oneM2M-based interoperability technologies (Mobius, OM2M, and ACME) that solve critical IoT concerns.

    Scalable and Interoperable Distributed Architecture for IoT in Smart Cities, IEEE WFIoT 2023 (IEEE World Forum on Internet of Things)
    Oct 2023

    Introduced a distributed, scalable IoT architecture ensuring interoperability, seamless data transfer, telemetry retrieval, and cross-platform compatibility using Kafka, ThingsBoard, ElasticSearch, and a Load Balancer.