I am a first year Phd student in Robotics, working with AI/ML in Robotics. My advisor has asked me I can take trainings anywhere in US. He got the fundings to utilize. Any upcoming training or workshops coming up? Please drop in the comments.

For those collecting teleop data (LeRobot, ALOHA, or similar):

• How do you find bad episodes before training? Do you watch the videos manually, use scripts, or just train and see?
• What kinds of problems show up most? Dropped frames, sloppy demos, sensor glitches, something else?
• Has bad data ever cost you a training run or weeks of debugging?

I’m trying to understand how people handle this today. Would love to hear what works and what’s painful.

I am working on a startup and will learn along the process, hence asking.

I work in industrial robotics BD, and I’m interested in the handoff between inspection and maintenance. Detecting an anomaly is useful, but someone still has to review the evidence and decide whether it becomes actual work.

Would you create a work order as soon as the robot flags something, only after a person verifies it, or after the same exception repeats? I suspect the answer depends on severity and the cost of false alarms, but I’d be interested in how teams define this boundary.

Hi everyone, so I had someone reach out to me and ask me to create a demo for a unitree dog working and autonomously navigating a warehouse environment.

I was gonna go with Isaac sim, ROS2, and NAV2 as the stack for this.

Do you think this is good to go ahead or are there are better stacks as I'm kinda a beginner in the robotics side :)

TL;DR: I have an MS in CS from Georgia Tech, with a background in robotics perception, computer vision, SLAM, and factor graphs. I couldn't break into robotics after graduation, worked in data engineering for two years, and have spent the last three years in India running an unrelated e-commerce business. I want to return to robotics, ideally in the US or Europe. Would you recommend building a strong portfolio and applying directly, pursuing a structured program like The Construct's Robotics Developer Masterclass, or taking another route? I also previously had an H-1B petition approved and may have time remaining under the six-year limit. Looking for honest advice from people in the industry or anyone who's made a similar transition.

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping to get some honest advice from people working in robotics, particularly those involved in hiring or those who have successfully transitioned into the field.

This is something I've been thinking about for a long time, and I'd really like to give it a serious shot rather than continue wondering whether I should have pursued robotics more persistently.

My background

I have a BTech in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, followed by an MS in Computer Science from Georgia Tech, where I specialized in computational perception and robotics. I have worked on robotics projects involving SLAM and completed an internship involving PCB development. During my master's, I worked on a variety of computer vision and robotics perception projects. One of them involved factor graphs for legged robots. I had broad exposure to different aspects of perception and robotics, although I wouldn't claim to be an expert in any one area based on those academic projects alone.

After graduation, I tried to get into robotics but unfortunately couldn't land a job in the field. I eventually moved into general software engineering, primarily data engineering, and worked in that area for about two years. I then returned to India, where I've spent the last three years running an e-commerce business.

Part of the reason I went down that path was that I had become quite discouraged by the software job market. Applying for jobs without getting callbacks, combined with the uncertainty around the future of software engineering and AI, made it difficult to see a clear path forward. Starting a business gave me something productive to work on instead of remaining stuck in that cycle.

However, robotics has never really stopped being the field I wanted to work in. Looking back, I feel that I drifted away from it because I couldn't get my foot in the door, rather than because I lost interest in the subject.

Now I want to make a genuine attempt at returning to the industry.

The problem I'm trying to solve-

I'm aware that my academic robotics experience is several years old, and I don't want to overestimate what a degree and some past projects will do for me today.

I'm willing to put in the work. What I'm struggling with is deciding which route gives me the best chance of actually getting hired.

Should I spend the next six months building substantial projects, documenting them on GitHub, contributing to open-source projects, and applying for robotics software engineering positions?

Or would it be worth investing in a structured program with an internship component to get more recent, practical experience and potentially improve my chances of getting interviews?

I've been looking at The Construct's Robotics Developer Masterclass, for example, but I'm unsure whether something like this would provide a meaningful advantage over a well-executed independent learning and portfolio plan.

I don't want to collect certificates just for the sake of it. I want to do whatever will most effectively bridge the gap between my background and what robotics companies expect from an engineer today.

A few specific questions

1. Would you consider someone with my background a viable candidate for robotics software engineering roles?

Or would the lack of recent robotics experience be a major obstacle, regardless of my master's degree and previous projects?

I'm particularly interested in robotics perception, computer vision, SLAM, state estimation, and autonomous systems. I would be happy working on production robotics software rather than pursuing an academic research career.

1. Would a strong portfolio be enough, or would an internship or structured program make a meaningful difference?

Suppose I built two or three serious projects using ROS 2, C++, simulation, and relevant robotics algorithms, with clean code, tests, technical write-ups, and demonstrations.

Would that be enough to make me competitive for entry-level or intermediate robotics software positions?

Or would employers be much more interested in recent industry experience, making a program with an internship component a better investment?

If anyone has completed The Construct's Robotics Developer Masterclass or a similar program, I'd particularly appreciate hearing whether it helped them secure interviews or full-time positions.

1. How realistic is it to get hired by a robotics company in the US or Europe while living in India?

This is another major concern.

I'd ideally like to work in the US or Europe, but I understand that international hiring and immigration requirements can make things more complicated.

One potentially relevant detail is that I previously had an H-1B petition approved for US employment. I spent only about a month in the US in H-1B status before leaving, so I may have substantial time remaining under the six-year H-1B limit, subject to the applicable rules and verification of my immigration history.

I'm mentioning this because I wonder whether the possibility of using remaining H-1B time could make me a more viable candidate for US positions than someone who would need to pursue an entirely new route. I still need to verify my specific eligibility.

Would you recommend applying directly to US companies, focusing on Europe, or trying to gain robotics experience in India first and then pursuing international opportunities?

I'd especially appreciate advice from people who have hired international candidates or navigated this situation themselves.

1. If you were in my position, what would your next six months look like?

Would you focus on:

- Building a portfolio around perception, SLAM, and state estimation?

- Developing broader robotics software skills in ROS 2, C++, navigation, motion planning, and simulation?

- Pursuing a structured training program with an internship component?

- Contributing to established open-source robotics projects?

- Applying immediately while building projects, rather than waiting until the portfolio is complete?

I'm also open to suggestions for other routes I might be overlooking.

I spent years studying computer science and working on problems that genuinely interested me. When I couldn't break into robotics, I took another professional route rather than continuing to apply indefinitely without results. I've since built a business, but I keep coming back to the idea of working in robotics.

I want to give that ambition a serious, structured attempt now. I'm prepared to learn, build, take feedback, and put in sustained effort. What I lack is clarity on the most effective path from where I am today to becoming a credible candidate for a robotics engineering role.

If you've been in a similar situation, hired someone with a nontraditional career path, or have experience mentoring engineers entering robotics, I'd genuinely appreciate your perspective.

What would you do in my position, and what mistakes would you avoid?

Thanks for reading.

I'm a 3rd semester ece student in tier 2 college. I am interesting in Robotics and want to make career in it.

So till now this is my learning-

1. I'm familiar with arduino, esp32 and have made some projects using them like human follower bot, etc...

2. I also do cad a little

3. I'm learning ros2 and kinematics from here and there

So my question is how do I actually and systematically learn ros2, kinematics and other such concepts? Like I want a proper course or playlist or something which starts from scratch, teaches most of the required things without skipping the theory and concepts and makes 1-2 projects to be comfortable to make more by myself.

Also I would like to learn simulating robots in mujoco or gazebo, writing urdf, etc, RL, etc because this is what I most like in Robotics. For context, I can literally do simulation/training thing with at least 10x more dedication than learning theory.

PS. I can't afford exquisite and expensive resources and/or courses.

This is a general design question rather than a specific build. I’m particularly interested in holding position under load, positioning repeatability, and handling the bending moment from the extended arm.

How would those requirements influence the choice, and when would external guides still be needed with a ready-made actuator?

I wanna learn robotics since a long time now. But idk where to start, dont know who to ask for help and stuff. I'd really appreciate it if somebody could help me out.

I’m a complete novice and have spent some time on Amazon looking for a robotic arm/hand that can connect and disconnect a light weight MagSafe cable on a MacBook.

The project is to help make life a little easier for an injured friend, I’m planning on using a Raspi5 or Arduino board with support from Ai to make it work as required.

But I am really struggling to find something reliable, as a lot of the feedback on Amazon suggests the arms under £100 are unreliable, flimsy, or of poor quality in some other way.

Can anybody recommend a robotic arm that might be suitable for this use case?

I’m a tech teacher and built a free 3D robot simulator that runs in the browser. Looking for teachers to try it and tell me what’s confusing or missing.

Link: https://mguedessantos.github.io/simuladorrobotica/?lang=en

What it does:

• Build a robot piece by piece (motors, wheels, color/ultrasonic/gyro sensors, claw), with real weight and tipping physics
• Program with blocks (PictoBlox-style) or Python
• 14 guided tutorial stages, from “make it move” to line following, intersections, obstacles, and ramps
• RoboCupJunior Rescue Line style arenas, including a rescue room with victims
• No install, no account. Save your robot to a file and reopen it later

What I’d like to know:

• Are the stages pitched right for your students’ age?
• Anything confusing in the wording or interface?
• Which blocks, sensors, or challenges are missing?

It’s still in development, so expect bugs. Any feedback helps. I’ll reply to every comment.

I've been learning Python recently, but besides that I don't really have any experience with anything robotics-related. My school is very academic and STEM-centered but doesn't have a robotics club that I could join. Everything online says to follow arduino projects, but how would you learn if you just follow instructions?​ Also, my school offer AP CSA and Technical Drawing with AutoCAD. Should I take those classes next year?

Hey everyone!

I’m planning to buy a new laptop and could use some advice from people studying or working in robotics.

My budget is around $2,500, and I’ll mainly use it for:

• Ros 2 development, coding
• Gazebo simulation
• General robotics and software development
• Cad design

I’m considering a MacBook with an M-series chip, but I’m not sure how practical it is for ROS development, especially when using Docker, Ubuntu VMs, or Gazebo.

Alternatively, I’m thinking about getting an x86 laptop and running Ubuntu natively to avoid compatibility issues.

A few questions:

1. Is a MacBook with Apple Silicon a good choice for ROS development, or is it more trouble than it’s worth?
2. How well do ROS 2 and Gazebo work on Apple Silicon through Docker or VMs?
3. Would you recommend a Linux laptop instead? If so, which models?
4. What hardware specs would you prioritize (RAM, CPU, GPU) for this kind of workload?
5. For those who have used both macOS and Linux for robotics development, which do you prefer and why?

Ideally, I’d prefer a compact laptop with a screen size under 14 inches, as portability is also important to me.

I’d like something that will last at least 4–5 years.

Thanks in advance!

I’m a student looking into data collection and evaluation for robotics. I’m trying to understand what people actually use and where they run into problems.

If you’ve worked on a robot-learning project recently, what was the task and what data did you need? Was it human video, robot demonstrations with recorded actions, sensor data, or something else? I’m interested in data for both training and testing how well the robot performs.

What did the data need to include to be usable for your setup? Things like camera views, synchronized recordings, annotations, or a particular file format. Were existing datasets suitable, or did you have to collect your own?

Was getting enough suitable data actually difficult? If so, what was missing and how did you work around it? If collection was straightforward and preparing the data or evaluating the model was harder, I’d like to hear about that too.

An example from a small project would be helpful as well. No need to share datasets or anything confidential.

I (23M) want to pursue a master’s degree in AI and Robotics as a combined subject. I have no problem moving abroad to study, so could anyone help me find universities that offer a combined course in both fields? I’d also like to know how good these universities are, what the career opportunities are like, and what the future holds for a subject like this.Any advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Hello i am currently trying to make a camera subscriber node in ros2 jazzy with opencv and cv bridge in c++ from scratch.when i checked to code it seems fine but when i build it.It gives this error that does not make sense the code is below.I hope someone can help me:

```

// this is a node to subscribe camera images as ros2 msgs with opencv version 4.6 currently
#include "rclcpp/rclcpp.hpp" // c++ client library
#include <vector>



#include <functional>
#include <memory>
#include <sensor_msgs/msg/image.hpp>
#include <cv_bridge/cv_bridge.hpp> // needed to make a .hpp file  for this current version of opencv
#include <opencv2/opencv.hpp> // for opencv format


// creating namespaces


using std::placeholders::_1;
class Camera_subscribernode : public rclcpp::Node {


public:
Camera_subscribernode() : Node("camera_subs1")
{


// creating subscriber// error is below
camera_subs_  = this->create_subscription<sensor_msgs::msg::Image>("camera/image", 10,std::bind(&Camera_subscribernode::callback_cam, this,_1)); 
// creating timer        
camera_timer_ = this->create_wall_timer(std::chrono::milliseconds(30),std::bind(&Camera_subscribernode::camera_processing,this));


     RCLCPP_INFO(this->get_logger(), "Starting camera_subscriber application in cpp...");
    }


    private:


    bool cam_is_;
    cv::Mat frame; // creating camer objects
sensor_msgs::msg::Image::SharedPtr camera_subs_ ;
rclcpp::TimerBase::SharedPtr camera_timer_;


void callback_cam(const sensor_msgs::msg::Image::SharedPtr msg) {
frame = cv_bridge::toCvCopy(msg,"bgr8")->image;
cam_is_ = true;
}
void camera_processing() {



    if(cam_is_) {


        cv::imshow("view_camera",frame);
        cv::waitKey(1);
    }
}};



int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    rclcpp::init(argc, argv);
    auto node = std::make_shared<Camera_subscribernode>();
    rclcpp::spin(node);
    rclcpp::shutdown();
    return 0;
}

Hey everyone! I'm a beginner in robotic arm manipulation and control and want to learn it properly. Where should I start? Any open source simulators, free courses, or books you'd recommend? I'm comfortable with Python, MATLAB and ROS 2, and want to build a classical control foundation (kinematics, dynamics, control) . Thanks!

Hi everyone. I program CNC machines for work and have a strong mechanical background, but limited coding experience and little formal education in robotics, controls, or machine learning. I'd appreciate advice on a sensible order for learning and building.

My long-term goal is a workflow that takes a CAD assembly and helps a robot plan and perform the physical assembly, eventually working toward high-mix, low-volume steel fabrication. The current experiment is much smaller: an SO-101 leader/follower setup picking up dowels and placing them onto V-block supports in arrangements defined in CAD.

What I've built so far:

• A standalone CAD editor for drawing and previewing dowel/V-block layouts and exporting assembly geometry and metadata.
• An SO-101 teleoperation setup using LeLab/LeRobot, with custom tools for collecting pickup and placement demonstrations.
• Offline planning and simulation using SO-101 kinematics, collision checking, Fabrica motion-planning code, and MuJoCo contact physics.
• Saved simulated assembly runs, including a two-dowel/four-V-block arrangement.

I haven't demonstrated reliable autonomous assembly on the physical robot yet. Model-to-hardware alignment and automatic positioning are current problems. The simulation uses planned/scripted motion; it doesn't demonstrate a trained policy controlling the real arm.

I'm considering conventional planning for transfers, with learned skills for local pickup and placement. That architecture is still being worked out.

My main questions:

1. What should I prove before upgrading the arm? Would you aim for repeated physical assembly success on the SO-101 first? What measured limitation would justify better repeatability, stiffness, or payload?
2. When should learning enter the project? Would you establish a conventional pick-and-place baseline with fixtures first, then introduce learned skills? Which parts actually warrant learning?
3. When is a local training GPU worth buying? Would you use occasional rented compute until the datasets and training requirements are clearer? What workload or bottleneck should I measure first?
4. Are used industrial arms a sensible eventual upgrade? Mechanical repair appeals to me, but what should I check about the controller, cabling, software access, parts, integration, and safety requirements before buying?
5. What should I study, and in what order? Books, courses, papers, or practical material on coordinate frames, calibration, kinematics, planning, controls, and imitation learning would help.

If you've built something similar, what would you tackle next, and what do you wish you'd learned earlier?

For visual context, the CAD/workcell and offline simulation screenshots are in this project post.

MECH is being built to make learning robotics easier through quick, interactive digital lessons instead of having to dig through long PDFs and documents. 🚀
Join our Discord to learn more about what we’re building, get updates on the launch, and be among the first to know when MECH goes live!
🔗 [https://discord.gg/gcXD5GHq\]

So I check everything and every video I personally think it is a problem whit the sensor or the mother board that gave out or that is dysfunction the only button that working right is the crosshair and the tactile is fine for the l r button I think it is a problem heiter from the piece that is making the electricity pass or from the liaison whit the mother board

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Robotics and AI are evolving fast, and they're increasingly evolving together. From humanoid robots, autonomous vehicles, medical robots and robotic arms to machine learning, computer vision, language models and AI-powered machines that learn how to move and interact with the world, there's always something new to discover. And honestly, it can be hard to keep up.

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