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Ask HN: How do I learn robotics in 2025?

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Re: Ask HN: How do I learn robotics in 2025?

#31

Post by aerophilic »

Honestly, and I feel like a promoter… but get either a hackpack from Mark Rober or as otherwise mentioned, mindstorms from LEGO.

Crunch labs: https://www.crunchlabs.com/

As someone in the industry (I literally can call myself a Robot Master having a Masters Degree in Robotics), these simple “kid kits” are phenomenal. When you first start out, the hardest part is knowing the hardware is actually going to do what you tell it to do. Simplifying the mechanical engineering/electrical engineering so you can immediately create real world actions makes a huge difference in giving you motivation to keep going.

Once you have the basics in place and you understand mechanisms, sensors, and some algorithms, you can move on to other parts of robotics.

However, keep in mind robotics is really about system thinking… you have to understand trades between sensing, thinking, and acting. But most importantly you have to remember you are dealing with the real world… you can’t as easily write a unit test and know that a particular actuator will behave exactly the same way every time.

Re: Ask HN: How do I learn robotics in 2025?

#33

Post by agcat »

The best way to learn is just by running small experiments and being curious about the field.

Just a few weeks ago, along with my partner i started this Sunday experiment of building and learning robotics as a software engineer.

We ordered a one hand robotic arm with orin nvidia gpu to start running experiments.

to commit and make it a habit, we also started documenting our learnings and experience.. if this motivates you you can check it out here - https://youtu.be/pAwkl6zd0ws

Re: Ask HN: How do I learn robotics in 2025?

#36

Post by chasd00 »

Adafruit is your friend. Get one of their feather boards, an imu breakout, motor controller and then a simple robot chassis + motors from Amazon. Code in circuit python and save yourself the build chain and debug hell that is traditional embedded programming. Circuitpython / micropython is great, well supported, and makes embedded programming more fun. You’ll encounter the haters see it as training wheels but trust me, it’s great.

Edit: you could take a more top down approach and get like an ardupilot, use it in rover mode, and just really learn how to configure and use it to its full potential which is pretty far out there. There’s also a lua scripting capability last time I checked.

Re: Ask HN: How do I learn robotics in 2025?

#37

Post by borjah »

varispeed wrote: post #16
borjah wrote: post #10

Do 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…

How programming of RP2040 or RP2350 could translate to platforms used commercially like Siemens SIMATIC and others?

Yeah. As some has said already PLC are more oriented to robotic arms in factories etc, where space is not a premium. Robots like anymal from anybotics, spot from boston dynamics or the unidog from unitree to name a few don't use PLC at all due to lack of space. Also energy efficiency, mcu at most will push less than a watt to move something complex, a motor control for the FOC, I mentioned earlier.

I worked for the past 4 years in HP siteprint.The main problem was developing all to fit inside a pelican case that you could check in on a plane. The smallest PLC was almost the full internal volume of the robot. That's why I said microcontrollers, more ready available to experiment at home, faaaaaaaar more cheaper and those two, very well documented. STM32 in europe is the big player but is harder to get into, the documentation tends to be cahotic.

Re: Ask HN: How do I learn robotics in 2025?

#38

Post by iancmceachern »

All the responses, most of which I've seen are great, are very software focused. I get it, makes sense for HN. There is a whole world of hardware in this space. Learning how to design mechanisms that work, and last. Custom motors, controllers, actuators, hardware.

For that there are some great points of entry now. Places like pololu robotics, Adafruit, sparkfun, etc. are all as good as ever and are great jumping off points into building and eventually designing hardware.

Re: Ask HN: How do I learn robotics in 2025?

#39

Post by sabareesh »

borjah wrote: post #10

Do 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…

Interesting one thing that is more satisfying with robotics is that because you can see your creations in real world

Re: Ask HN: How do I learn robotics in 2025?

#40

Post by borjah »

amelius wrote: post #25
borjah wrote: post #10

Do 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…

> the fun and money is in the software This could change if there are breakthroughs in AI, which is not unlikely in the coming few years. Any thoughts on that?

Mmmm true, but will not replace a good coder. The software team has been experimenting with AI. Is useful and can guide you to do a Proof of concept fast but if you want to start doing very specific custom stuff all crumbles down fast.

In the next years? Yeah I see resolving path planning without a doubt or reverse kinematics or object recognition, for example. AI will be another tool, one you have to learn to use it. But replacing a full software guy... I don't see it, to be honest. I see it more like in the novel Beyond the Blue Event Horizon. The first chapters explains AI as the AI agents that are being rolling out nowdays. But they will be more like what a junior engineer is to a senior, more than replacing a full team of engineers.

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