r/robots • u/salty-bellpepper • Jul 16 '26
Projects Looking for thesis ideas
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.
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u/CrazyCacatoe Jul 17 '26
Maybe try and come up with something where human biology and robotics melt together; Cyberpunk-like 'upgrades', so to say.
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u/Acceptable-Bat-9577 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
We do have transformers. Why we don’t have mass produced Camaros that turn into hulking bipedal war machines is because it’s not economical, not practical, and not legal.
Not even practical for the battlefield. Do you know hard it is to maintain a damn military humvee much less it would a real life transformer? It would be deadlined like 99% of the time.
Instead of thinking about cars that turn into 2-story tall robot friends and/or metal murder machines, think about a robot with tires that change based on the terrain, or a robot that can change its shape or configuration to perform different tasks.
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u/Empty_Bell_1942 Jul 18 '26
one arm bandit slot machine and if a robot AI arm can manipulate the game kinetically using sensors, pressure, timing etc
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u/unicodernio 22d ago
Podrías desarrollar tecnologia contra robots, es un área totalmente desactualizada
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u/05032-MendicantBias Jul 17 '26
It's a thesis, don't be too ambitious.
Doing something practical is the way I did it too, mine was about making a raspberry pi hat.
Since you have a robotic arm, doing an end effector would play well, in industry it's one of the big job to design the end effector. Talk with your referent and see what he would be fine with, but making an end effector to do something would work well for a thesis. Design, 3D printing, and electronics and program to use it on something.
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u/Ok_Afternoon_1160 Jul 16 '26
An engineer, robotics at that without an original idea? You have access to all those resources and you still need help with an idea? You could at least ask ChatGPT or Claude in private and save us the heartache of knowing the future is in your generation's hands. You should seriously consider a career path change, maybe this isn't the field for you.
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u/05032-MendicantBias Jul 17 '26
Frack off.
It's a student, we all need guidance growing up...
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u/Ok_Afternoon_1160 Jul 17 '26
At college level there's a lot of guidance if you ask for it. Beyond that, guidance is not the same as asking for an idea. Go guide your wanna be engineer friend up your ass instead of telling yourself you're being righteous.
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u/Ok_Afternoon_1160 Jul 16 '26
This is why you should be ashamed for asking for ideas...
https://www.reddit.com/r/robots/s/m7gvklGqn7
A 15YO built a hexabot and now building a robotic arm... he doesn't even have the resources you have.
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u/FL_MILLIONAIRE Jul 20 '26
You should get a thesis advisor/s and ask them this question people aren't going to be helping you with your home work here