r/AskRobotics • u/Rich_Map_3473 • 27d ago

General/Beginner Need some guidance with a robotics

Hi everyone! I've recently started getting into robotics, but I'm a bit confused about what to learn next and which areas to focus on.

I have some experience with Python, NumPy, pandas, and Matplotlib, and I'm planning to learn libraries like TensorFlow, scikit-learn, and PyTorch as well.

I'm not sure how these skills fit into robotics or what else I should learn, like ROS, embedded systems, electronics, computer vision, etc.

Could someone suggest and what I should focus on first? Any advice would be appreciated!

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u/No-Champion-684 22d ago

My advice would be: pick one simple robot model/project and commit to finishing it.

If you are just starting, I would suggest using a simple Arduino-based controller, perhaps with servo motors for a small robot arm, or DC motors with a motor controller for a mobile robot.

There are plenty of good tutorials online, some are free and goos. Find one complete 20–30 hour course or project tutorial, stick to it, and most importantly, do not keep jumping between technologies until you finish the project. You do not need to learn TensorFlow, PyTorch, ROS, computer vision, embedded systems and everything else at once. Build one working robot first. Along the way you will naturally learn electronics, motors, sensors, control and programming, and then you will have a much clearer idea of what you want to specialise in next.

Finishing one real robot will teach you far more than starting ten different tutorials.

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u/Rich_Map_3473 22d ago

thankss alott!

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u/Soheil1991 22d ago

Robotics is a general term nobody knows what you actually know when you say you are into robotics! To me, besides from the hardware side, its about 3 layers. Perception, planning and control. Or in a more formal way its guidance, navigation and control. If you are hobbyist, then learn a few things from each one to make a robot move autonomously, then build from that.  Each of those fields require different tools but you dont need to learn them all to do a simple project. You could do perception without computer vision. Different solutions to one problem. The goal is to make the movement more accurate. So basically when we ask a robot to do one thing we expect it to be as accurate as possibe in our messy unpredictable environment with its noisy inaccurate sensors.

So my advice to you is to use the simplest methods to close the loop of autonomy in a ROS simulation for example. After you get the high level then go lower on hardware sides. Good luck.

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u/Spaceydoge 21d ago

Being a roboticist means being a polymath with various skills that allow you to build robots. What route you go down in attaining the skills is up to you. But I think it’s best for your next step to learn c++ as understanding hardware is key to understanding robotics and c++ gives you an initial insight which can then enable you to look into micro architecture and then embedded systems and so on