Getting into robotics as a software engineer
1–10 of 105 posts
Re: Getting into robotics as a software engineer
#2Nice article. As someone who's also gotten into robotics from the software side, I'd also suggest learning a bit about the hardware side. If you're doing anything with custom boards and board bring-up, you'll need to be able to read a schematic and data sheet at a basic level. Being able to use an oscilloscope and logic analyzer is also _very_ useful. None of this stuff is terribly hard, but it's nice to know what to expect.
Re: Getting into robotics as a software engineer
#3I've occasionally thought it would be fun (not necessarily productive!) to do something like the experiments folks have done with Genetic Algorithms, having simulated robots learn to walk, etc. in a simulated physics environment. The interesting bit would be to do it with real legs, sensors, servos, etc., to try to build up a "naive physics" library that can deal with balance, etc., by learning from physical experience rather than starting with equations of motion.
That may be the most number of times I've typed "etc." in a paragraph.
Re: Getting into robotics as a software engineer
#4This is completely unrelated to the article the OP posted other than it's also related to robotics. But it's the coolest robot project I found recently. And since readers of this thread are likely to be interested in robotics (I am!), it might of interest to some:
https://www.allesblinkt.com/projects/round-about-four-dimens...
Hope this is not considered too off-topic here.
Re: Getting into robotics as a software engineer
#5This is completely unrelated to the article the OP posted other than it's also related to robotics. But it's the coolest robot project I found recently. And since readers of this thread are likely to be interested in robotics (I am!), it might of interest to some: https://www.allesblinkt.com/projects/round-about-four-dimens... Hope this is not considered too off-topic here.
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Re: Getting into robotics as a software engineer
#6Nice article. As someone who's also gotten into robotics from the software side, I'd also suggest learning a bit about the hardware side. If you're doing anything with custom boards and board bring-up, you'll need to be able to read a schematic and data sheet at a basic level. Being able to use an oscilloscope and logic analyzer is also _very_ useful. None of this stuff is terribly hard, but it's nice to know what to…
What can you recommend to start experimenting at home with robotics? Raspberry Pi?
Re: Getting into robotics as a software engineer
#7My journey is a little bit opposite to the author’s: I studied robotics and started learning programming by myself to create software for robots. There are two observations I have that can be useful to people making the software->robotics journey.
* Agile for software-hardware is hard if not impossible. For software it can be reasonable, but it’s really hard to iterate on both hardware and software at the same time. It’s easier if the hardware designed is locked or the process involves waterfall on the hardware side. * I often found that people that come from pure software to robotics don’t have control experience and something that can be easily solved with a PID controller end up being a custom code that ends up being way more complicated than needed.
Re: Getting into robotics as a software engineer
#8I've occasionally thought it would be fun (not necessarily productive!) to do something like the experiments folks have done with Genetic Algorithms, having simulated robots learn to walk, etc. in a simulated physics environment. The interesting bit would be to do it with real legs, sensors, servos, etc., to try to build up a "naive physics" library that can deal with balance, etc., by learning from physical experien…
I've thought something similar but the reverse (if I'm understanding you correctly).
Using simulation to train a DIY spot on something novel and see how good I could get the performance in the real world.
Of course that's a dream of mine one day and not an active project.
Re: Getting into robotics as a software engineer
#9I've occasionally thought it would be fun (not necessarily productive!) to do something like the experiments folks have done with Genetic Algorithms, having simulated robots learn to walk, etc. in a simulated physics environment. The interesting bit would be to do it with real legs, sensors, servos, etc., to try to build up a "naive physics" library that can deal with balance, etc., by learning from physical experien…
Re: Getting into robotics as a software engineer
#10This is very interesting.
But quite a lot of CS people -- well at least I hope it is not just me -- end up on the web development trajectory despite or because of having less than good enough understanding of e.g. trigonometry, geometry and calculus... all of which start to matter a lot when you are starting to make things; especially things that move and consume electricity.
I am a good programmer but a weak mathematician. I have a 3D printer now, and I'm starting to learn FreeCAD and microcontroller stuff actively rather than just reading about it, and run up against my maths weakness all the time.
I have recently discovered the three books Joan Horvath and Rich Cameron wrote:
https://www.makershed.com/products/make-trigonometry-print