Build your own (small, diy) robot. Practical applications are the primary method of learning imo.
Ask HN: How do I learn robotics in 2025?
61–70 of 106 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do I learn robotics in 2025?
#62From the electronics side, the path towards control theory is a lot of math (signals and systems, Fourier transforms, transfer functions, feedback and oscillations, compensation circuits) ultimately leading up to the student solving the inverted pendulum problem sometimes in early Masters degree region or maybe the advanced student Bachelor's degree.
I'm not entirely sure how to make that more 'accessible'. It's like, spend the next 5 years of your life mastering difficult math and electronics so that the sensors can be integrated into feedback that stabilizes a motor system.
I guess you can cheat and use servos for a lot of this (where an EE already solved many feedback loop issues). But if you ever need to build your own sensor+motor solution you'd get stuck if you didn't know the math.
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Making simple controls without relying upon feedback sensors is likely the goal, you can do a lot with that. But then do your best to avoid the Masters level demons that plague this problem set.
Maybe learn PID controller theory and if that isn't enough for your problems, give up and try a different design. PID is simple enough that you won't need years of math to learn, but it's very adhoc to configure and not always the best methodology to use.
Better than nothing though.
Re: Ask HN: How do I learn robotics in 2025?
#63Do this course https://github.com/henki-robotics/robotics_essentials_ros2 Totally free, don't need to buy anything just a computer. I've been designing electrical hardware for robots for the last 4 years for a big corporation and I can tell you, the fun and money is in the software but having another skill is awesome. Robotics is a place where multiple fields converge and if you find a good team they will help you to…
I'm in the field and I disagree with the initial direction of this post. You aren't going to 'learn robotics' in a meaningful manner by checking the boxes in a online ROS2 course. Robotics is a compound discipline which pairs mechanical and electrical engineering knowledge with mathematics and software development. In order to get meaningful practice in all of these areas, I would recommend re-implementing a robot va…
Where would you recommend someone to start from a more data-sciencey background, algorithms like VSLAM look interesting to mess around with but building a whole robot just to do so seems daunting.
Re: Ask HN: How do I learn robotics in 2025?
#64If you’re an engineer, go volunteer for a First Robotics team, and advise high schoolers on your area of expertise.
I would say for starting a first robotics lego league is going to be easier to access because they build a smaller robot out of legos, plus the "season" starts in the Fall vs. January for First robotics league.
I've coached a First team that has qualified to go to worlds the last four years and been on the Einstein field once in that time. I think you'd learn a few things - robots are built to solve problems and the most technically complex and advanced robots don't always solve problem better than simple elegant designs. - Robots involve multiple skills and usually get built by teams where members are specialists in specific fields. Some people will understand all of the robot sub systems but
Re: Ask HN: How do I learn robotics in 2025?
#65It’s incredibly easy but for some reason seems hard
But no matter what you need an actual physical robot I have never once seen anyone actually transition into robotics without them having made the commitment of spending $100s or $1000s on a capable robot. Very capable robots are in that range at this point.
1.Figure out what you want the robot to do. This is the hardest part, cause it requires constraining your desires considerably
2. Figure out how you want to make it do that. Do you want a deterministic robot? Do you want a robot that uses inference?
3. Then buy the robot that can do the physical action. If your task is to move groceries from your car into the house, you have much different requirements than if its a linear actuator flipping a static switch
4. Choose your robotic actuation path: Dedicated embedded controller (FPGA, PLC), controller coupled with another switch, autopilot etc…
Test, iterate, test….
Re: Ask HN: How do I learn robotics in 2025?
#66If you’re an engineer, go volunteer for a First Robotics team, and advise high schoolers on your area of expertise.
I would say for starting a first robotics lego league is going to be easier to access because they build a smaller robot out of legos, plus the "season" starts in the Fall vs. January for First robotics league. I've coached a First team that has qualified to go to worlds the last four years and been on the Einstein field once in that time. I think you'd learn a few things - robots are built to solve problems and the…
I was thinking I’d love to do that when my son gets older. Any tips for a first time coach?
Re: Ask HN: How do I learn robotics in 2025?
#67It's not more accessible than ever. If you want to make it in robotics, you're going to have to read research papers and preferably have attended as many robotics related courses during university as possible. The hobbyist scene is big, but the vast majority of robots are basically fancy toys and almost no one ever goes beyond simple PID. The problem is that robotics is clustered around industrial robots and academia with nothing in-between. Unless you have the necessary background, you will most likely be stuck scraping the surface simply because you're not aware of the most recent developments in those areas.
Re: Ask HN: How do I learn robotics in 2025?
#68Do this course https://github.com/henki-robotics/robotics_essentials_ros2 Totally free, don't need to buy anything just a computer. I've been designing electrical hardware for robots for the last 4 years for a big corporation and I can tell you, the fun and money is in the software but having another skill is awesome. Robotics is a place where multiple fields converge and if you find a good team they will help you to…
> And above all, it will be a long journey. Don't dispear, do at your own time but don't forget the objective.
My biggest issue with robotics is that I don't see the point in any objective.
Building a cool robot feels like it's just a toy to me, and I don't know how to get around that feeling. I studied mechatronics at uni and spent a long time learning on my own in addition.
Robotics for business is almost a cliff, very hard to get into and make something that works reliably at a reasonable cost, from a solo developer point of view
Re: Ask HN: How do I learn robotics in 2025?
#69[flagged]
People love to hate. Insted of using this post to give back with the link of courses knowledge etc, just rage. And we wonder why the world is in such state...
Re: Ask HN: How do I learn robotics in 2025?
#70Robotics is definitely getting more accessible! But keep in mind it’s a whole different world from traditional web or desktop software development, so don’t be surprised by the relatively steep learning curve. Keep at it though! - Buy a small robot kit from Amazon or a local reseller. Yahboom make some good robot toy car kits. Hugging Face have the open source SO-ARM101 that plenty of companies manufacture and sell n…
I highly recommend starting with the SO-ARM101 and the LeRobot tutorial. They're super cheap, its insanely quick to get started, and you can even buy pre-made kits like at https://partabot.com . It's the "Hello World" of robotics now, imo.
Don't bother with a Jetson Nano, you don't need that to get started, and by the time you need that you'll know a lot already. You can just drive the robot from your laptop!
Getting to training your own VLA fine-tuned model is a super quick and easy process. You can see examples of other people completing the tutorial and uploading their training/evaluation datasets here (shameless plug for my thing): https://app.destroyrobots.com
I wouldn't bother much with ROS at first tbh. It'll bog you down, and startups are moving toward using other approaches that are more developer friendly, like Rust-based embedded.
You can go far with a robot connected to USB though!