I'm a KOSEN (technical college) student in Japan, currently participating in the Tobitate! Study Abroad Japan scholarship program.

I'll be in the Bay Area from 9/10 for 2 weeks. As part of the program, I need to arrange a 2-week placement with a host organization, and I'd love for it to be a robotics team, since I'm on my school's robotics team as well, and the theme of my visit is robotics. I'm hoping to visit a VEX U or FIRST Robotics team for observing/shadowing, but honestly any organization related to robotics would be great.

I've been emailing teams I found online, but there doesn't seem to be a single database or list of teams, which is making this pretty difficult.

If you know of any teams you'd recommend, or you're part of one yourself, I'd really appreciate a comment or a DM. If you have any question I can answer. And I'll want to hear out any other events or place near SF that I should visit.

I'll be staying in the East Oakland area. Thank you in advance!

I thought of an idea for a personal project for my portfolio. The project is an autonomous warehouse robot that can navigate, locate objects in the warehouse, based on a database that lists the type, quantity, location of each object in the warehouse. It travels to that location, as per user request, picks, and transports the desired object to a designated delivery spot. The navigation is made with SLAM and lidar tech.

Thinking of integrating deep learning, but don't have a concrete ideas yet. I thought of making it the "brain" of the robot, and including adaptive control of the force and posture necessary to transport each item based on the material each is made of, listed in that database, but idk.

I would like to know if this is a good project idea, if not, I'm open to suggestions as well.

P.S. I'm a mechanical sophomore, going into the junior year, and this is my first personal project, and I do not wanna delay any further.

Im getting into robotics using esp 32 for now and im wondering if i should learn python or c++, i already know a little bit or c++ but want to eventually automate projects like a lawnmower for example.

Hello! Thanks for taking the time to read this. I currently work in robotics doing tech support for customers that own and operate our robotic arms. It's a very high level role that has required very surface level technical knowledge. I would describe it as a customer service heavy role. Most of what I have learned is very specific to our robots and I use a in house GUI to work with the robots. However, after a conversation with my manager I am going to be promoted in the next few months and I need to develop stronger technical knowledge. In my new role it's going to be expected that I am the go to person to resolve more technical issues before we escalate to engineering.

To get there I figured a good place to start would be to build and operate my own robotic arm. My ask is: what would be the most practical things to learn over the next 3 months and next 6 months? Is it worth it to learn a programming language or should I do a dive into hardware? Is there any CS theory that would be beneficial? Any advice is appreciated :)

Hello, I want to build a portfolio as a robotics engineer so future recruiters can see my work. As my first project I am thinking about building something in C++. Any ideas what could I build? Thanks!

So as the title says i am building a inverted pendulum as a part of my project and the theory regarding has not been taught yet(i'm still in my 2nd of eng..) so i learnt all the basic stuff regarding it like we use encoder to tell the angle difference and pid to correct the error and how pid functions(basic not deep). But when i try to dig deeper (matlab, simularions, maths solutions and physics) it is becoming a mess and i do not know what to do...

Software engineer here with knowledge in electronics/embedded. Looking to get into robotics.

I have previously worked with ROS2 on an AirSim project and am looking to fully go towards a career in the robotics sector.

Is it worth learning IsaacSim as a tool then also eventually start creating my own “robots”.

Would I need anything else?

I just graduated university and I realise that I'm completely unemployable as a robotics engineer, so I was wondering what would be something that I should be learning so that I can be a better robotics engineer.

P.S. I've got experience in computer vision, robotics chassis design, neural nets and Arduino programming. Also I'm learning ROS2 now

Hi everyone,
I recently found out that my company uses OMRON ROEQ AMRs, and I’d like to learn about them from scratch. I have zero experience with AMRs and Fleet Manager, and I don’t have access to the robots or any official training.
Are there any free resources (documentation, YouTube channels, courses, simulators, etc.) that you would recommend for a complete beginner?
I’d appreciate any advice on where to start. Thanks!

 Ok, so a little bit of background. I really want to get into MIT and just finished Junior year of hs. One of the ways I'm hoping to stand out a little bit is by building a robotics project. I've never done anything like this before, but I've made it decently far I think. My concept is a robot to hold down the strings of a guitar so I can play one handed. I went through a few rough ideas on how to accomplish this, but the one I found most practical ended up being the first idea I came up with slightly modified. I need some help if you're willing. But first, here's the outline so far:

The Physical Components

It will be a 5 fingered "hand"  that has access to the first five frets (if you're unfamiliar with guitars, this is the top part of the guitar and the most used part) and is attached to the side of the guitar. Each finger will be in charge of a fret level and will consist of two motors; One will be attached to a structure on the side of the guitar. This structure will also hold a Raspberry Pi as the brain of this project. The other motor will be halfway through the finger. Each different string that needs pressed will be told to the computer as a combination of degrees of rotation of each motor.

The Code

Coding is something I have a bit of experience with.       

The plan is to have a list of data points given to the computer. For example, pushing down the second string on the third fret (2/3 is the standard shorthand for this) would have the computer tell motor 5 to rotate 20 degrees and motor 6 to rotate 45 degrees or something. I would store all 36 frets (6 strings with 5 frets plus an additional possibility for each string when nothing needs held down) in a list. To play a song, I would feed the computer a list of inputs and a speed to cycle through them. A simple song like the first line of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" would be the combination of 1/0, 2/3, 2/1, 2/3, 1/0, 1/0, 1/0. Once again, each of these will be instructions to a set of motors to tell the finger where exactly to be. A more complex song would be a long stream of inputs. 

The Plan

The first thing I did was to brainstorm possible ways to achieve this. The first idea was basically the same as I described above, but originally I had spherical motors on the base so that each finger could reach adjacent fret levels. This idea doesn't seem to work because I can't actually find anything that works like that IRL that I can buy. The next part of my brainstorm was talking to friends. One of them recommended servoss. These are basically a box with a tiny blade that can spin. The idea was that you would place them so each spinning blade could hold down a fret if told to engage. After some work, this was deemed by me to be impractical for two main reasons. The first is size restrictions. The strings are very close together and I could not find servos that would fit. The second is money. I would have to purchase 30 individual servos and while I am willing to spend money for this project, this is simply not feasible. As such, I circled back to fingers as they will be able to cover more than one section at a time. 

The next thing I did was to design a 3d file to print out. Here is where I ran into a few issues such as attaching my project to the guitar and the issues of finer details in 3d printers among other things. I can tell you more about it later if your eyes aren't actively glazing over, but it actually was quite the process. The steps after this are to research components, buy them, adjust 3d print files to manage them, assemble everything, and finally to code the application.

I am now at the point where I have a physical proof of concept and am ready to get electronic components for my robot. Like I said before, I believe the gold standard for brains for projects like mine is a Raspberry Pi. As for the motors themselve, this is the main reason I'm making this post. I need something like a door hinge or finger joint that I can use at the beginning and halfway point of the fingers. It also needs to be no bigger than about an inch and a half wide and ideally not cost more than $25 each. I'm not sure what exactly to get and none of my friends are sure either. 

What do you think I should use for this component? Do you have ideas in my plan you would change? Any advice you could offer? Do you know anywhere I could go to get resources (including more help)?

I have some photos of the project I can give so far, but I can't attach them to the post :\

I’m a mechatronics and automation engineer deciding between two interstate offers.

Offer A focuses on advanced control systems, PLC/SCADA, Python, data analysis and industrial process optimisation. It appears more technically aligned with my long-term interest in robotics, software, AI/ML and intelligent automation.

Offer B focuses on commissioning control systems for generators, battery storage and microgrids. It offers practical site work, troubleshooting, customer interaction, travel and strong exposure to energy-control systems.

One offer pays noticeably more, but compensation is not my only consideration. I’m more concerned about technical development, career flexibility and avoiding being locked into either process control or field service.

Relocating would also mean leaving my friends, established community, responsibilities and professional network in Victoria. I’m willing to make that sacrifice, but only for a role that genuinely advances my long-term career.

Which offer would provide the stronger foundation for eventually moving into robotics or autonomous systems? Would you prioritise advanced controls and software depth, or broader hands-on commissioning experience?

I’m working on a mini self-driving car project with Ackermann steering. The car has to follow a lane with boundary lines on both sides, stay centered, and handle both straight and curved sections like a small F1-style track.

I plan to use OpenCV + a webcam for lane detection and then control the steering based on the detected lane center. I’m looking for ideas on lane detection methods, steering control, and how to make it robust on curves and under different lighting conditions

I’m curious what topics people in this community would like to see discussed in an online workshop.

I’m considering inviting researchers or engineers working in different areas of robotics to share their experience and answer questions from the community.

Some areas I’m thinking about include:

• Exoskeleton/Wearable
• Humanoids
• Robotic arms...

But I’d like to hear from the community first.

If you could join a workshop with someone working in robotics, what topic would you want to learn more about?

Is it possible to build somehow such a robotic fly that can fly around 20km?

I appreciate your help pepole ,please relate to every part in the robot like battery maybe brushless motors,engine,and transmision part like radio or 5g or similar.

if its should be bigger a little bit u can also mention your idea please.

I’m looking for haptic LRAs (linear resonant actuators) around 10mm diameter for shipping to the uk, however the only place I can find which sells them is DigiKey, which has \~£20 shipping to the UK, which for a £10-£30 order is not ideal. Any idea where I might get some more locally?

(This is for an individual project so not looking for bulk solutions (>10pcs min))

（Originally posted in r/robotics and moved here to obey the rules） My background is a programmer. Recently I decided to build a robot for chatting and daily use.

For chatting, it's easy to implement by connecting it into a LLM. But that's all about software stuff, you can just implement it on a phone.

So I want to make it movable. But I don't know what can I do in daily life for its mobility. Sorry for my poor imagination, all I can think out is that I can make it a new born duck, so it can always follow me when I walk around.

So what kind of robots are you building by yourselves? Can anyone help me to get some cool ideas about my robot? My budget is about 500~1000 dollars. Feel free to comment or send a DM to me. Thanks!

Hey everyone, I’m an engineering student transitioning into research with a year of independent robotics experience. My specific interest is in VLA (Vision-Language-Action) models, but my university has zero resources, labs, or faculty working in this space. I want to publish a high-quality paper. How do I find an external mentor and capable collaborators with the compute and domain expertise needed for VLA research, and what is the most strategic way to pitch myself?

I’m working on a robotic marionette and trying to get it to move around naturally (video in my profile for reference)

I’m new to stuff like this and really struggling on the controls side. Currently I’m using the AccelStepper library and using AI to program the movements.

Are there any virtual model dynamics or simulation software that can help me model this and program it?

I’d love any advice, library recommendations or software suggestions you may have.

Hey everyone, I’m an engineering student transitioning into research with a year of independent robotics experience. Since my university has no robotics programs or faculty, I want to know the most systematic way to approach students or labs at other institutions to co-author a paper, and what my realistic chances of getting published are through this route.