Job Spotlight – Michael Scherer, Autonomous Software Lead

The Control Team is the largest team at ASV Global and is continually growing. These people are the brains behind the control system; the hardware and software that makes a boat autonomous. Without them there would be no ‘A’ in ASV.

Michael attended the University of Central Florida (UCF) and achieved his bachelors in Computer Science with a minor in Math. He got excited about robotics from a young age tinkering and building contraptions. In college, Michael competed in the AUVSI competitions as a member of the Robotics Club at UCF which gave him real-world experience building, programming, and testing autonomous robots from scratch. Here he tells us how this led him into industry…

What does your role involve?

I lead development efforts on a number of projects, developing software for unmanned boats. I’ve gotten the opportunity to do everything from low-level controllers for motors and engines, to radio communications systems, to user interfaces, and also collision detection systems.

What is your favorite thing about working for ASV Global?

Getting to work on such a variety of challenging robotics problems and at the end seeing it work in the real world. For me, it’s much more satisfying to build an unmanned system that people will use and benefit from in real life than “one off” projects that just end up collecting dust on the shelf.

What is your greatest achievement at ASV Global?

Traveling up to Quebec to convert a 26ft manned survey boat to be unmanned. After doing some development beforehand, we flew up to Canada and put it together on site. Then we put it to paces testing it at sea. It’s a great feeling building and testing an unmanned vessel from start to finish.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

Hiking, and enjoying the local festivals and music that Lafayette has to offer.

We’re currently looking for Software Engineers of all experience levels, including graduates, to join our growing control team in Lafayette, Louisiana. Find out more here.

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