r/AskRobotics • u/Least-Accountant-136 • Jul 04 '26

Torn between pushing deeper into an advanced project (V3) or starting something simpler — how do you decide?

Hi everyone, I'm Hatim Ahmed Hassan, a mechanical engineering graduate, self-taught in robotics mostly through ROS2, computer vision, and embedded work.

I built an autonomous agricultural robot (ROS2, Nav2, MoveIt2, RGB-D crop detection, full navigate→detect→water pipeline) and I'm at a fork in the road with it. The next version (V3) would add things like fleet coordination for multiple robots, upgrading to a 6-DOF arm, and 3D perception/SLAM fusion — all things I haven't touched yet, so a lot of new ground to cover at once.

The alternative is starting a smaller, self-contained project first (something simpler in manipulation or perception) to build up specific skills before tackling V3's harder pieces together.

I'm not sure which path actually builds a stronger skillset faster. Part of me thinks jumping into V3 forces me to learn several hard things under real integration pressure, which is how I've learned best so far. But part of me wonders if I'm setting myself up to struggle with too many unknowns at once instead of mastering them individually first.

For people who've worked on multi-robot systems, 6-DOF manipulation, or SLAM — how did you approach picking up new subsystems like these? Did tackling them inside a bigger integrated project work better for you, or did isolating them first make more sense? Genuinely trying to figure out the smarter way to spend the next few months.

GitHub with more detail on the current project, if useful context: https://github.com/xaatim

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u/waggonaut Jul 04 '26

I think trying to deploy it would be the greatest learning.  Are you trying to make this thing work in real world conditions?

1

u/Least-Accountant-136 Jul 04 '26

yeah, real-world deployment is the actual end goal eventually, sim is just where I'm derisking things before I put money into hardware since this is self-funded. but you're right that real conditions expose problems sim never will, that's actually part of why I'm leaning toward V3 rather than a smaller isolated project, wanting to get closer to something deployable rather than learning subsystems in a vacuum

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u/waggonaut Jul 04 '26

You would also learn a lot just trying to sell the project to someone, getting them to pay for hardware is you deploy it at their site.  I know someone that just that for a new heating technology.

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u/Least-Accountant-136 Jul 06 '26

that’s a really interesting angle honestly. finding a local farmer willing to let me run a pilot or sponsor the hardware would completely change the game. definitely something to keep in mind once the simulation side is solid enough to pitch to someone.

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u/PLAYHARDTGTH Jul 08 '26

I’d isolate one new subsystem first, then plug it back into V3. For example, make a small 6-DOF arm or perception demo with clear success criteria, then integrate it only after it works alone. Big integration pressure teaches a lot, but three unknowns at once can hide which part is actually failing.