Julian Kent
Senior Robotics Team Lead at Hexagon Robotics
Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolJulian Kent is a senior robotics and R&D leader with 12 years of experience delivering embedded, computer vision and autonomy systems across drones, humanoid robots and industrial products. He blends hands-on expertise in modern C++, Python, Java and Embedded C with machine learning and classical CV, and has repeatedly moved projects from research prototypes to production-grade systems. Julian has led teams at Hexagon Robotics, Wingtra, Auterion and Pix4D, driving low-latency localization, obstacle avoidance and VIO-based navigation while introducing CI/CD and testing disciplines. He is an active contributor to the PX4 ecosystem, where he fixed memory leaks, added collision-prevention velocity limits and improved core tests and math libraries. With an MSc.Eng from the University of Cape Town’s robotics lab, he pairs rigorous research training with practical systems engineering and frequent cross-disciplinary work in electronics, simulation and deployment. Colleagues rely on him for pragmatic architecture choices that balance performance, safety and deliverability in constrained embedded environments.
12 years of coding experience
9 years of employment as a software developer
Master of Science in Engineering (MSc. Eng.) Mechanical Engineering, Master of Science in Engineering (MSc. Eng.) Mechanical Engineering at University of Cape Town
English, French
Stackoverflow
1,089reputation
389kreached
8answers
2questions
Github Skills (26)
algorithms10
c-language10
autopilot10
navigationbar10
obs10
navigation-drawer10
autonomy10
sys10
embedded10
cprogramming-language10
ros10
navigationview10
testing9
cmake9
eigen9
Programming languages (10)
Github contributions (5)
PX4/PX4-Avoidance
Nov 2018 - Feb 2020
PX4 avoidance ROS node for obstacle detection and avoidance.
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:5 reviews, 59 commits, 186 PRs in 1 year 2 months
Contributions summary:Julian primarily worked on refactoring and fixing unused parameters within the local planner code. These changes involved modifications to core functions related to obstacle avoidance, including calculations for angles and distances within the environment. The user also made changes to the waypoint generator, along with adjustments to several test files. Their contributions focused on optimizing the existing code base and improving the calculations used for navigation.
ignitionros2ros-noderosobstacle-detection
PX4/PX4-Autopilot
Apr 2019 - Feb 2020
PX4 Autopilot Software
Role in this project:Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT Developer
Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT DeveloperContributions:47 reviews, 27 commits, 86 PRs in 10 months
Contributions summary:Julian primarily contributed to the PX4 Autopilot software by fixing memory issues, improving testing procedures, and enhancing collision prevention features. They addressed memory leaks and Python 2.7 compatibility issues in the `px_uploader.py` tool. Furthermore, the user added a test for jerk reduction and implemented velocity limitations in collision prevention, leveraging their expertise in embedded systems and autonomous navigation. They made changes to the core mathematical libraries and functions.
multicopteravoidancedroneuasraspberry-pi
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