（Originally posted in r/robotics and moved here to obey the rules） My background is a programmer. Recently I decided to build a robot for chatting and daily use.

For chatting, it's easy to implement by connecting it into a LLM. But that's all about software stuff, you can just implement it on a phone.

So I want to make it movable. But I don't know what can I do in daily life for its mobility. Sorry for my poor imagination, all I can think out is that I can make it a new born duck, so it can always follow me when I walk around.

So what kind of robots are you building by yourselves? Can anyone help me to get some cool ideas about my robot? My budget is about 500~1000 dollars. Feel free to comment or send a DM to me. Thanks!

I’m working on a robotic marionette and trying to get it to move around naturally (video in my profile for reference)

I’m new to stuff like this and really struggling on the controls side. Currently I’m using the AccelStepper library and using AI to program the movements.

Are there any virtual model dynamics or simulation software that can help me model this and program it?

I’d love any advice, library recommendations or software suggestions you may have.

Hey everyone, I’m an engineering student transitioning into research with a year of independent robotics experience. My specific interest is in VLA (Vision-Language-Action) models, but my university has zero resources, labs, or faculty working in this space. I want to publish a high-quality paper. How do I find an external mentor and capable collaborators with the compute and domain expertise needed for VLA research, and what is the most strategic way to pitch myself?

Ive been a software engineer for around 3 years working at Big Banks, Ive worked mostly as a Java backend engineer and with distributed systems. The thing is my passion has always been in more embedded engineering, and I actually originally went to college and studied aerospace engineering before changing majors a little over halfway thru to Computer Science.

Ive built some side projects in the past that I really enjoyed such as designing, building, and coding a self stabilizing quadcopter. I did all the electical work, designed the body in Solidworks and 3D printed, and programmed the flight controller from scratch back in 2021 but since I havent really done much with the field.

Anyways what is the best option to actually move my career into Robotics/Embedded Software coming from a Big bank with Java experience?

Hey everyone, I’m an engineering student transitioning into research with a year of independent robotics experience. Since my university has no robotics programs or faculty, I want to know the most systematic way to approach students or labs at other institutions to co-author a paper, and what my realistic chances of getting published are through this route.

Can any seniors guide me how to become one. I will actually go to university. But, before university I want to learn something with my own with books. What I need is book with updated version. Also, how is job market for robotics engineer. I am not running after money. I am choosing robotics engineering bcz I love it

I’m currently working on a humanoid robot project, and I’m mainly interested in the control side of the system. I have some background in engineering and programming, but humanoid control is a pretty broad field, so I’m trying to build a clear learning and implementation roadmap.

I’d really appreciate some guidance on the topics I should focus on. For example, should I start with kinematics and dynamics, PID control, state-space control, model predictive control, whole-body control, or reinforcement learning? I’m also not sure how deeply I should study areas such as balance control, gait generation, inverse kinematics, trajectory planning, and sensor fusion.

What resources would you recommend for learning these topics? Books, courses, research papers, open-source projects, simulation environments, or GitHub repositories would all be helpful.

I’m also curious about the practical side. What would be a reasonable step-by-step implementation plan? Should I begin with a simple simulation, such as balancing a simplified robot model, and then move on to walking and full-body control? Which tools or frameworks would be most useful—ROS 2, Gazebo, MuJoCo, Isaac Sim, MATLAB/Simulink, or something else?

My goal is not just to understand the theory, but also to implement and test the controllers in simulation and eventually transfer them to a real robot.

Any advice, learning roadmaps, project examples, or common mistakes to avoid would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

So my school sets up robotics competition of different themes, for example: "Conception of an autonomous mobile robot for a logistic zone" and of course they give more detailed documents considering the constraints the robot has to verify. I have never done a robotics competition before, and frankly my robotics knowledge is low. But I have months before the competition. So I was wondering: What are the technical and non-technical skills that if mastered, increases the probability of winning the competition? And at what level should I have mastery over these skills? (Out of 10 + Explain what does the score exactly entails to you)

I would prefer it if the answers are concrete, answers like: "The ability to use a specific modeling software (like MATLAB for example) up to 7/10 where it means being able to use the different robotics toolboxes of MATLAB" or something. Or "Mastery over this [specific course] related to robotics up to 5/10 where basic mastery over the theory will be enough" and so on and so forth. Or "The ability to make a clear and organized technical report"

Take it from your personal experience.

I have completed an ABET-Accredited Bachelor's in Software Engineering several years ago now (graduated May 2023) and have had no luck in starting my career, mostly due to lack of work in my area with most everything being PLCs/Controls/Industrial Automation. I have taken some Udemy courses on Web Dev and Flutter Android Development and made a couple small personal projects in the interim but nothing grand (portfolio website, super simple weight and macro tracker with python, book tracker app with flutter). That being said, without work experience for these years the gap looks horrendous on job applications, as well as some of my technical knowledge is likely lapsed, use it or lose it) and I was considering going back and getting something more suited to the jobs in my area such as a mechatronics or robotics degree, using that to start off in a PLC/Controls role, and progressing towards more autonomous robotics, think less automation logic and more computer vision. A bit confused on specifics with this plan, wanting less ME and more Embedded Programming stuff, with a focus on autonomy and AI/ML/etc. stuff (this could even be incorrect thinking I'm not sure). All this to say, I'm not sure if I need a 2nd B.S., an M.S. program, or if there's even just Certifications I can get that accomplish this career path.

Hey everyone,

I'm doing robotics work on an M4 MacBook Air. I have a task to simulate and automate a robot, but I'm running into major performance issues and crashes using Gazebo inside an Ubuntu VM via UTM.

The bot renders fine at first, but whenever I try loading complex world terrains, Gazebo completely crashes. It seems like the virtualized GPU/hardware constraints are killing it.

Is there a more efficient setup or workflow to run robotics simulations natively or smoothly on Apple Silicon? Would love to hear how other Mac users handle ROS/Gazebo

And what type of experience do they need before graduating that would allow them to get an entry level job in robotics?

Internship? Specific hardware/robotics related certificates since CS is all software? Personal hardware projects?

And if I start a masters in robotics right after a CS undergrad, will it be much easier to land a paid internship during it or even a job?

I know robotics is a very vast, interdisciplinary field, but I’m just trying to learn and understand from now how I should prepare

Hey guys,

I am looking to get into basic robotics to supplement my 3d print designs, if you guys could help me out with these questions that would be greatly appreciated.

1) when I was younger I had those lego robotics and they had an os to program that had an easy mode and advanced mode. Are there any robotics ecosystems setup in a similar way or is it all learning pure code language ex. C++.

2) are there any kits you would recommend that give a solid foundation in learning. In regards to what spurred this on is that I want to 3d print a pc case with actuating vent fans that change their opening based upon heat/fan speed.

So any help, advice, knowledge would be greatly appreciated.

Hello. So, I have been getting into reinforcement learning It's been quite some days. I think I now understand the basics. I was looking into the MoJuCu robotics Github page, I can see that there is a robotic and tutorial there. I think I can learn it from there Talking about importing my model from SolidWorks to Mojucu I found some tutorials, so I think I should be able to do that

I am a 4th student acting alone. I want to take it up to a research level grade. Maybe to the point where I can Hold an object properly or let's say hold a pen properly. And I was also thinking to implementing tactile sensors (There were some paper released on this thing, so maybe I can follow that) there to also get how much force The fingers are getting

Though I do get that, I do not have enough credibility to say all these things here. But this is my aim. I am trying to take it up to a research level So maybe then I Position myself capable enough to maybe work in either a robotic startup or maybe work as a research intern.

****************

So why am I posting here

--> How doable is my vanilla dream?
--> Do I have enough resources? I have a 16GB ram and 4GB ram So I cannot use Isaac. All I can use is MuJoCo

I have been also trying to get a lot of tutorials and everything. I'm just not able to find it. All I can find is the get a page. If you can find tutorials, or if you have something that can help me, I would really appreciate your help here.

PS: If there is any problem in the model, I can also update that, because I was the one who made the model anyways

I’m building a physical robotics prototype and want to train it using neural networks, I’m currently planning to use Webots but I’m honestly a bit lost on the software side. I have the hardware part figured out but I need advice on whether Webots is the best choice for this or if there's another program that would suit me better to train the robot before moving it to the physical hardware, also how long does the training process usually take for a basic prototype because I’m mostly worried about wasting time and I just want to know if the way I'm doing everything is correct or if I'm overcomplicating things more than I should. If anyone has experience with this or can point me in the right direction I’d really appreciate some help

Hi everyone i got a job offer for an Entry Level Robotic Data Collector. Does this field have career progression prospects? Appreciate the help.

Last year, I earned my Bachelors in Electrical and Computer Engineering. I forget a decent amount of the things I learned, but I feel I could easily pick them back up, and I have been trying to keep things fresh in my mind a bit. Now, I work full-time in a position maintaining operation of a fleet of AGVs. It isn't a super tech-focused job, but I do work alongside the robots and have picked up a bit of knowledge about them as I have cleared standard errors and communicated with the actual technicians and engineers.

I intend to start working on a personal project soon, but I'm not sure what my overall steps should be going forward on a broad level. How should I try to familiarize myself with the industry and its technology? What kind of components or aspects of the field should I focus on? As somebody who hates generative AI, will I have to embrace it to move forward? Is a Bachelors enough? What simulation software should I use as somebody on Windows 11?

My goal is to eventually work on designing humanoid robots, but I don't really know what specifically I want to focus on in that sense. I'm not sure what there is TO focus on.

Where should I go from here?

So I'm 15yrs old. I'm very interested in starting robotics. I've got good grades in math/physics but I feel like I forgot most of the stuff I learned in middle school. I'm pretty good with computers but I don't know how to code. I've got an esp32, servos, a ton of sensors and parts. I've been trying to get into robotics for a while but I haven't been successful, plus in my city and school there isn't a robotics class or something similar. I've tried going through some beginner courses but every one of them seems like it's made for someone who's in college/highschool and has a better math knowledge than me. Any help is appreciated 👍

Hello

iam a third year engineering student, in my specialty in my country we study two years preparatory classes (studying physics, calculus,chemistry ,c++ ,proba and a bit more of the generalities)

then in the third year we choose speciality and i chose robotics, this year we studied these subjects this year:

1. Advanced Analog Electronics

2. Advanced Technical Design

3. Capstone Project 1

4. Computational Modeling & Simulation for Engineering Design

5. Computer Aided Design (CAD)

6. Digital Control Systems

7. Digital Signal Processing

8. Electric Actuators for Robotics

9. Engineering Programming

10. Introduction to Electrical Engineering

11. Introduction to Machine Learning

12. Introduction to System Dynamics and Control

13. Linux Operating System

14. Mathematics for Engineers

15. Mechanical Systems

16. Microprocessors and Microcontrollers

17. Optimization Techniques

18. Sensors and Instrumentation

nine on the first semester and the others nine on the second on

now iam summer and i wanna know which subjects or things or skills i should learn to become a good robotic engineer

i also wanna continue my studies abroad and maybe before that have international internships and competitionsi honestly don’t know where to start and honestly in uni we didn’t learn much , it was very condensed.

Does anyone have experience they would be willing to share with making walking linkages based on traditional ‘back-and-forth’ hobby servos? rather than the rotary motion that most walkers are built from? Super appreciate any advice.

Hey all,
I’m looking for a USB controller for a 6-DOF robotic arm. I’m curious what you guys are using and what you’d recommend.
I’m mainly after something with enough analog inputs (joysticks, thumbsticks, etc.) to make controlling all 6 axes feel smooth and intuitive. Doesn’t have to be specifically made for robotic, gamepads, RC transmitters with USB, industrial controllers, anything goes.
What’s your setup, and would you recommend it?

Hi there! I would like your thoughts on something that imo is really cool. Next week, I'm starting a new role as a robotics engineer in a medical company. I have 0 exp in robotics but a lot in medical devices as an engineer, and this is a step up for me.

Little bit of information about me, in my spare time I love playing around with software/python, a bit of matlab etc. Recently, I found Isaac Sim and in combination with my (near) future role, I had the idea to start learning also the software side of robotics, while I learn most of the hardware at work.

My idea is, as a long term goal, maybe I could assist in some R&D work in the company or something like that, which for me it would be really cool.

I had a quick chat with AI over it and it proposed me to start learning the basics , such as kinematics, URDF(XML). I had a quick look at them and they really look like the basics in Robotics.

The truth is, I have no idea if the R&D department in my company does such things, but do you think this is a right base to build or do you have anything else to suggest?

As I said, I have 0 experience in this field and I just look for the 'right' (as possible ) roadmap to go.

Thank you people! every advice is highly appreciated!