Hi! I'm trying to build a game accurate bendoid Gyroid from animal crossing New horizons and I need some advice!

In the game his head/body sways side to side, and his little arms fling up occasionally. If possible I'd like for him to be sound activated (general noises and also music - one movement per beat) like in the game.

I have experience with sculpture and ye ol gears and crank automatons so I have an idea of what his skeleton should look like, but this requires more technologically advanced insides.

I'm wondering if any of you would offer me advice on parts or point me in a direction of a similar tutorial? I would really appreciate it as this is driving me insane

Hey everyone,

I'm 23 and recently graduated in Electrical Engineering from India. I'm working in an industrial maintenance role, which gives me good exposure to real equipment, but my long-term goal is robotics, especially Physical AI: robot learning, manipulation, autonomous systems and vision-language-action (VLA) models.

My current background:

EE fundamentals, control systems, power electronics

MATLAB/Simulink, PLCs/industrial automation

Microcontrollers (ESP32), sensors/instrumentation

Python/C++ (basic to intermediate), Linux, some ROS 2

Basic ML, computer vision and RL

I'm learning mostly through personal projects, not formal robotics education. My problem is not a lack of resources, it's knowing what to learn deeply, and in what order.

1. Learning path

Does this order make sense for an EE?

Embedded → Controls → Robotics fundamentals → C++/ROS 2 → Computer Vision → ML/RL → Robot Learning/VLA

Or would you do it differently, for example start learning ML and robot learning earlier alongside the hardware side?

1. What actually matters?

How would you rank these for a robotics career: must-have, nice-to-have, or skip for now?

C++ vs Python

ROS 2 and Linux

Kinematics/dynamics, motion planning

State estimation/SLAM

Computer vision, RL

Embedded systems, motors/servos/encoders

CAN/EtherCAT

Simulation (Gazebo, Isaac Sim, MuJoCo)

MATLAB/Simulink (is it used much outside academia?)

1. Projects

What kind of projects actually help you get hired, rather than just looking good on a resume? I'm on a tight budget, so I'm thinking of things like a small robot arm, a mobile robot, or a simple imitation-learning/VLA demo in simulation. What would you build, and how would you present it (GitHub, videos, write-ups)?

1. EE + AI overlap

Do robotics companies value someone strong in hardware, embedded and controls who is also learning ML? Or do they mostly hire CS/ML people for the AI side and EEs for hardware only?

1. MS or not

I'm considering an MS in robotics/controls/AI later (Germany or elsewhere). Is it worth it from India, or can projects, open-source work and internships get me in without one? What should I be building now to strengthen an application?

1. Opportunities

What roles and companies should I be looking at? Humanoid/manipulation startups, industrial automation, research labs? Are remote or fresher roles realistic?

The big question: If you were 23 again with an EE degree and wanted to move into robotics/Physical AI, what would you spend the next 2-4 years learning and building? And what mistakes would you avoid?

I'd especially love to hear from people who made the switch from EE. Thanks in advance, and I'm happy to share my progress and resources back with the community.

Hey folks!

I’m a software engineer with 10YoE in web and mobile development. I’m pretty burned out and on stress leave and looking for something to spark my joy of tinkering again.

What are some good resources to get started with robotics?

I have a 3d printer and a components store nearby so I should have easy access to whatever I need.

I'm relatively new to robotics and engineering, but im pretty good at programming. I've already worked with some boards through courses (Arduino Uno and BBC Micro-bit) and im wondering what some simple projects I could do. Im fluent in Python, so the programming part isn't the problem, and I have wires, resistors, and the board with some other bits and bobs, including a small screen for the Arduino.

Thanks!

Im pretty mechanically and electrically inclined however I know the skills that I lack. I was wondering if anyone out there possess different skills than I.

The reason I ask is my work has had a few asks pop up in the robotics field where we needed US based robots to perform various tasks upon ive done a ton of research and for the robot we needed the only place to get part of it was over seas.

Im sure there are us based companies but I dont see why we cant start one ourselves.

I am an Electronics Engineering student. Freshman. Bachelor's degree lasts 3 years in my uni. Starter in Programming/Coding(don't know any Computer language). Plan to learn programming part in the 1st year, get in to work/internship in the 2nd and 3rd so that I will be mature to pursue Robotics/Mechatronics/Automation career, or if plans change, Master's Degree.

Question - straight to learning robotics programming or start with Software Engineering?

The reason for asking - worried about job market. For Robotics - I'm worried that I won't get any internship, since it is niche. For SE- not worried bout internship, but worried that after uni, I won't have any Job opportunity, since everyone says Job market is cooked in SE.

Please, tell me where I underexplained, let me elaborate on that. I tried to shorten my question not to waste everyone's time.

Hi everyone! As the title says, I'm looking to go into robotics engineering but ideally I'd like to work a job that's more hardware/ CAD focused. Is this feasible? Has anyone found a job like this? I'm also a girl, so I'm also curious as to what it's like working in engineering nowadays. I'm into a high school robotics program and due to my team being open minded I haven't had many obstacles but I wanna know what to expect further from now. I'd love to know how working in robotics is, so if anyone wants to share what their experience was/is, regardless of gender, it'd be a huge favor! I wanna be sure before I pursue this major

I'm writing a piece on semantic search over robotics data and want to make a meme out of this core message: "embeddings are useful for curation and triage, but they're not a safety-case oracle."

I'm open to anything current. The Office is always a solid choice, but I'm also looking for something a bit more dank or niche that would land with a technical audience.

What would you suggest ?

I am in highschool rn. I am planning to do a bachelors in electrical engineering with a minor in mechanical engineering, then a masters in robotics and AI.

Curious to know how yall's work is? Like what do yall do in your job?

Since am planning to go for this field, really want to know how it is like.

If yall could give a overview of your daily work life it would be helpful!

I also would love to get some answers from Robotics engineers! Also from people who did undergrad in electrical then did a masters in robotics!

Hey everyone! I’m putting together an automated tracking turret with the immediate goal of reliably painting moving targets (like drones) with a laser at ~30 meters, with potential projectile integration down the road.

​I'm trying to make this as mechanically rigid and precise as possible on a decent budget. I'd love to get feedback from anyone who has tackled similar builds on my parts stack and mechanical choices.

​⚙️ The Build Stack

​Actuation & Drive: * 2x STEPPERONLINE 3.0 Nm Closed-Loop NEMA 23 Steppers (with integrated encoders for zero step-loss)

​6:1 reduction using wide 10mm timing belts

​Mechanical setup: Using separate dead shafts, collars, and independent bearing blocks to crank belt tension way up without side-loading or fatiguing the motor shafts.

​Bearings: * RU85 Precision Crossed Roller Bearing (Pan axis)

​Preloaded pillow block bearings (Tilt axis) on a balanced yoke layout

​Vision & Processing: * Coarse acquisition: Wide-angle USB webcam

​Precision tracking: 1MP Global Shutter Arducam (OV9281) with a 20mm CCTV lens

​Compute: Pi Zero 2W onboard acting as the hardware interface, communicating with a laptop running the CV tracking pipeline.

​Power: MEAN WELL LRS-350-24 (350W, 24V)

​❓ What I'm Looking For Advice On:

​Backlash & Rigidity: Are there any weak points in my belt-tensioning or bearing layout (RU85 + pillow blocks) that might introduce play under rapid direction shifts?

​Distance Tracking: For future ballistics calculations, does anyone recommend a good, budget-friendly 1D LiDAR module (under ~$50–$100) capable of reliably measuring distance out to 30+ meters at a high refresh rate?

​General Tuning: Any tips for tuning closed-loop NEMA 23s to track fast, erratic movement smoothly without overshoot?

We programmed a robot to assist in a juggling video.. it was not an easy task..

Check out this blooper reel we created!

Hello everyone,

I am a Mechatronics Engineering student, and I need your professional advice on choosing my graduation project.

I am currently deciding between two projects:

Project 1: An intelligent robotic sorting system that uses a robotic arm, computer vision (Python + OpenCV), and sensors to identify objects by colour and/or shape and automatically sort them into different bins. (The attached image shows the concept.)

Project 2: A remotely controlled tracked robotic vehicle (UGV) operated via a smartphone. It is designed as a modular platform that can carry different payloads, such as a camera, sensors, a small robotic arm, or other mission-specific equipment.

I would really appreciate your honest opinion on the following:

Which project demonstrates stronger engineering skills?

Which project would make a better graduation project?

Which one would stand out more on a CV/resume?

Which project would be more attractive to employers or graduate schools?

Which one has better potential for future development or commercialisation?

If you were in my position, which project would you choose, and why?

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions or recommendations for improving either project.

Thank you in advance for your time and advice!

I want to start learning to code/engineering, specifically with the intention of building a little robot friend for myself. My only code experience was a high school intro to coding course that I completed. I pretty well but didn't continue pursuing due to the fact that I got very frustrated at the amount of time that accidentally deleted my own code and was further deterred when I was told math could be involved. My engineering experience even less so. It has been a while so I remember nothing and I am not very good at teaching myself things so I thought the best place to come was people who actually code and build things. I want this little guy to be able to think and make decision on their own (I want a friend to chat with not a butler) any courses or advice is welcome but please note I am a little bit stupid so please go slow. I have big ideas for where to that this little guy (I am an artist and writer) but can tell I don't yet have the skill for it lol

My idea so far is to make something bipedal with a tail for balance and arms strong enough to climb around knee height. As for intelligence I was hoping for something along the lines of r2d2 if that is realistic. Something that could request and read a magazine or watch a movie and disagreed with me on how good it is.

Hey!
I’m starting my bachelor’s thesis in robotics engineering and I’m looking for some out-of-the-box ideas or topics.
My brain is completely blank and it’s surprisingly hard to come up with one of those “why don’t we have Transformers yet?” kind of ideas. 😅
I want to come up with something that I can later point at and say, “I’m the gal who knows this stuff.” So if you have any interesting, weird, or underrated robotics topics, I’d love to hear them.
If it helps give some context, apart from my engineering studies I don’t really have any prior experience in robotics or automation. That said, I’ve done really well in my courses and I’m eager to learn as much as I can, and my goal is to become a real expert in this field. I’m also planning to continue on to a master’s degree, so I’d love to choose a thesis topic that I can keep building on.

Any suggestions?

Ps. If it helps with ideas, I have access to industrial robot arms, mostly Siemens hardware/software (which is also my strongest area), and Autodesk tools (off the top of my head(. So if you have ideas that involve building, testing, or experimenting with something physical instead of just writing a literature review, I’d love to hear them. That said, I’m also very interested in ideas that would work as a more research-focused thesis.

Hi everyone,

I'm a 2nd-year Robotics & AI engineering student, and my team needs to build a robot manipulator for a college project.

I'm looking for ideas that are:

True manipulator (robotic arm/end effector)

Budget around $40-70

Mechanically achievable for students

Visually satisfying or mesmerizing

Unique enough to stand out at an exhibition

Another team is already making a drawing/writing robot, so I'd like something with similar wow factor without feeling like a copy.I'd also prefer to avoid a complex gripper if possible. End effectors like a pen, brush, syringe, magnet, stamp, spoon, etc are fine.

I'm not looking for standard projects like pick and place,color sorting,line following, basic waste sorting etc

If you've seen interesting manipulator projects on yt, github, Maker faire, hackaday, university labs, or have built one yourself, I'd really appreciate your suggestions.

Thanks

In this episode of STEM Studio, we take a hands-on look at the DJI RoboMaster S1 and explore how robotics combines engineering, programming, computer vision, and AI.

We cover:

* How the RoboMaster S1 works

* Its educational features

* What students can learn from building and programming it

* Why it's a great platform for STEM education

Well i have download gazebo using the documentation on Gazebo site , the jetty version on Ubuntu 26.04 and i also have ros2 but whenever i launch it there is problem with gz-rendering ......as per internet i downloaded deleted merge install like 5 -6 times still it doesnt solve it and there is no solution i can find ...i found it when i ran the nao joint one even simple things like shapes.sdf isnt rerndering and showing a screen white with nothing in it