Hello, fellow engineers, I'm currently doing a Master's degree in robotics and found myself in a very delicate position where pass/fail of my semester depends on if I interview an engineer from the field. (Apparently, engineering schools are more about journalism nowadays). So, if you're willing to sacrifice 1 hour of your time and save my semester by having a talk with me, my gratitude would be immeasurable.

This is the first at home robotics project I’m attempting (post engr grad) and idk what I’m doing. I’ve got the theory but I don’t know any tried and true methods or hardware. PLEASE HELP! I know this mechanism is possible!

TLDR:

I need a way to mount a stationary pulley system axially around my servo spline while extending the servo through the pulley wheel so it can move another part.

The Situation:

I have been designing the 3 dof leg of my self balancing 2 wheel robot and I came up with an idea. If I put a pulley on the hip joint that is stationary, then by running the belt to the knee joint I can move both the hip and knee with one servo. The hip servo moves the thigh, but not the pulley at the hip, so as the knee moves, the belt will pull on it.

Where I’m struggling:

Imagine a body with 2 legs, servos in the middle pointing out. The servos are encased by a 3D printed “body.” How can I both mount a stationary pulley wheel to the outside of the server so it surrounds the spline, but also allow the spline enough room to attach to the leg? The screws would through the body frame into the servo. The spline is too short for me to fit anything around it while still being able to attach a horn for mounting the “thigh bone.”

I have a design for how to do this but I can’t figure out what hardware to look for or how to mount it. Please feel free to comment with questions and if you have experience with PULLEY SYSTEMS please help!

Hey Guys, I need recommendation for SO101 robot in India. You are welcome to share any knowledge regarding this. I have been searching for a reliable website/store, I am very confused with their reviews.. So please if anyone bought it, please share your experience, the delivery time, their customer support, availability of spare parts.. anything. Also is there anyone who tried importing and experienced custom charges? How was it? How long it took to get delivered in those cases? Which is better? Thanking you in advance.

German roaches forage at night along walls and appliance edges. Most of the colony stays in cracks, so chasing individuals across the room is a losing game. Idea is a low-profile bot that attracts + intercepts on those paths, then behaves like a robot vac: dock, dump, charge, go out again.

Loop

• After lights-out, leave the dock and patrol known travel lines (fridge, stove, cabinets, baseboards).
• Onboard food / aggregation lure + IR camera. Don’t chase; sit or creep where they already walk.
• If something shows up: suck into a sealed cup, drop a small glue/bait cartridge hit, or just log a map pin for gel placement.
• When the cup is full, battery is low, or the schedule says so: return to base, empty into a disposable bag, charge, run another night circuit. Same dock-and-repeat pattern as a robovac.

Why a dock

Live collection is a biohazard if it sits in the robot. Emptying at the base keeps the rover clean and lets it run multiple 11pm–5am circuits without you touching it.

Mobility (the actual hard part)

Kitchen floors are cords, chair legs, thresholds, and a 2-inch gap under the fridge.

Needs:

• Low body so it can slide under appliances and toe-kicks.
• Climb small lips / uneven transitions.
• Treat cords as avoid or gently cross, not wrap-and-die.
• Wall-follow + go-into-the-gap: hug baseboards, then push into the dark slot beside/behind the stove and fridge.
• Optional skinny feeler or extendable nozzle for the last few inches the chassis can’t fit.

If it only patrols open floor, it’s a toy. The job is the alley behind the refrigerator.

Mobility precedent

Cat play robots already navigate cords and tight spaces better than most floor vacs. They roll or bounce under furniture and don’t treat a cable as a mission abort. Steal that “go into the gap” behavior, not the random bounce. Still need a mapped patrol, a dock that empties a sealed cup, and enough control to sit on a wall line with a lure instead of ricocheting around the kitchen.

A modified robovac platform plus cat-toy gap-running is a better start than a custom micro-bot. Flagship vacs already map, dock, climb a bit, and refuse socks. Add night-only schedule, a lure, a sealed pest cup, and “deliberately enter the appliance gap.”

Not a replacement for bait. Gel still does the nest. This is a scout + intercept layer: find hot spots, pick off night foragers, tell you where to put the next pea of Advion.

Anyone seen a build that combines lure + IR + sealed suction + auto-dock + under-appliance mobility?

just got myself an esp32-cam with an esp32-cam-mb as a main coding board. how to get hardware on it so it works and later communicates with a rasberry pi pico W?

Hello I am someone who has self taught robotics for around 6 years. I try to mainly specialize on simulation and computervision. But currently i am working to make a 6dof walking robot from scratch. But currently i am curious what the state of the job market is in the Netherlands. Like the entry-level requirements and the supply and demand of the industry especially the ones working with computervision and simulation software. Does anyone knows how it is now?

I'm looking for good textbooks to get started programming robots, any suggestions? I work in automation and with cnc's, but not directly with robotics. I'm trying to add to my programming skills.

Hi, for my final year engineering project I am creating a small remote controlled robot that goes a gutter and cleans them. I am currently unsure on which path to go down for telemetry. At the moment I am thinking of using a raspberry pi zero 2w amd connect that to a phone via wifi and the phone will have joysticks to controll the robot. Also I was thinking of then sending the signal from the pi zero to another microcontroller via i2c for more realtime responces, as the microcontroller can monitor the current on the motors or emergancy stops etc. Idk if this is a good method or if i should run a more standard radio controller to a microcontroller for less of a delay although its a gutter robot so 20ms latency isnt the end of the world. Thanks in advance hope this made sense

I am looking into SAAS ideas that I think can be useful in robotics (which once I finished my robotics masters, I will focus completely). Do you guys think is there any market for a simulation tool built for browser? It would be something like "The easiest place to develop, simulate, test, learn and share robotics software."

Please advise if there is a better sub to post this in.

I have an old Parallax Eddie robot that I bought several years ago. From what I can tell, the original Propeller control board has a bad USB connector and I was never able to get into it before life got in the way and I got out of the hobby. My grandson is now very interested in robotics so I'm looking to resurrect it. Can anyone recommend a path to replace the controller with a more modern one? I have experience with Basic Stamp, OOPic, and Arduino and I'm good with electronics, so looking for a controller and dual H-bridge controller. A board that can incorporate the multiple sonar and IR rangers and wheel encoders would be great.

Thanks!

I currently have this code to produce odometry for my diff-drive robot in Gazebo:

                <plugin filename="gz-sim-odometry-publisher-system"
                        name="gz::sim::systems::OdometryPublisher">
                    <odom_frame>odom</odom_frame>
                    <robot_base_frame>base_footprint</robot_base_frame>
                    <odom_publish_frequency>30</odom_publish_frequency>
                    <odom_topic>odom</odom_topic>
                    <tf_topic>/tf</tf_topic>
                    <dimensions>2</dimensions>
                </plugin>

However, even though I specifically set the dimensions to 2 for 2d, the odometry message only zeros out the odometry pose z = 0.0; it does not properly handle odometry orientation, as the message still contains pitch, yaw, and roll values, causing algorithms such as slam_toolbox to not handle mapping and localization properly. I have added an image here showing that z is 0.0, but orientation is not in 2d:
https://imgur.com/2qXFYig

Is there a way to truly have 2d as in the pitch and roll are also zeroed out and only yaw is active?

For context: Arduino is an open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software that allows anyone to build interactive physical projects.

Our capstone project requires us to make a prototype that fixes problems that the community faces on a daily basis. We previously proposed an Arduino scarecrow, but after a deeper search, there are already other researchers who have developed an even more advanced version of our project, so

I'm asking for your experience in this matter: what are some problems/issues have you faced in the community or in your daily activities that could be better/solved with Arduino and potentially automation?

With your answer, we can come up with a potential solution using Arduino technology and programming. But don't worry, while we're waiting for your response, we're already searching some up in the internet. This post was made for SPECIFIC problems that a lot of you might actually be facing!

I've been thinking about a question that seems increasingly important and widely discussed:

Which type of data will be mainstream for future robot learning/model training: robot-native teleoperation data, or human-centric data?

By robot-native data, I mean demonstrations where a human directly operates the robot, and we collect synchronized actions, trajectories, etc.

By human-centric data, I mean data like egocentric video, hand/object interactions, and other data collected from people without necessarily having a robot in the loop.

From what I’ve been observing recently, human-centric data, such as egocentric data, seems to be gaining traction. Will teleoperation data eventually be replaced because of the complexity and efficiency challenges of collecting it? Curious to hear what the community thinks. 🤖

Hi everyone,

I'm a senior in mechanical engineering at McGill with a strong interest in robotics/mechatronics/IoT, especially medtech. I've spent most of this summer weighing one big decision: pursue a 2-year thesis master's, or go straight into industry after my bachelor's. Here's my thinking on both sides.

Why a master's appeals to me

Mechatronics is inherently multidisciplinary, so I suspect a master's isn't just useful but actually required for some roles in this space. I'm also genuinely drawn to a thesis track over a course-based one: I want to work (when in industry) in new product development, not maintaining legacy products, and I'm passionate about working on something novel. A thesis gives me a shot at doing that: a year or so of deep, high-level work on an original project, ideally with a professor who has industry ties (I've already identified a few who fit). If I go this route, I'd also want to aim for a top school rather than staying at McGill, but I honestly don't know how competitive that makes me. I'm not sure how McGill is viewed by admissions committees at top programs, so I don't even know if I'd have a real shot getting in.

Why industry appeals to me

The alternative is skipping the master's and working my way up directly. I'm confident I could grow quickly that way, and I'd supplement it with side projects and self-directed learning. That said, part of me still leans toward the master's. The multidisciplinary nature of the field and the chance to work on something novel at a high level are hard to walk away from. There's also the fact that most side projects end up being fairly "cheap," derivative GitHub-clone type builds, whereas a thesis is a genuinely serious, sustained piece of work. That gap in depth is part of what keeps pulling me back toward the master's. Still, I can't fully rule out the industry path.

Some context on where I'm coming from

I've prioritized my GPA (3.7/4.0) over extracurriculars, so I have some projects but no design-team experience, you know the kind that tends to land internships at places like Tesla. That's part of why the master's appeals to me: if I already sacrificed project time for grades, doing a thesis feels like a natural next step. And honestly, two years feels like a small trade-off in the long run, especially given my long-standing interest in research with real industry ties.

TL;DR: Senior in MechEng at McGill, want to work in new product development. Deciding between a thesis master's (research tied to industry) or going straight into industry with side projects on the side.

My main questions:

1. Is a master's actually valuable for someone aiming at NPD/startup-style work in this field?
2. Would it give me a real edge over other candidates?
3. Is my instinct right that the multidisciplinary nature of mechatronics makes a master's more worthwhile?
4. Or is skipping it, going straight into industry plus side projects, the smarter move?

Would love to hear your thoughts, especially from anyone who's made a similar call.

I'm an independent journalist covering Chinese robotics. I attended the World Robot Conference in Beijing (Aug 19–23) and shot this footage myself at Galbot's booth. No affiliation with the company, and this isn't sourced from their published material.

The robot: Galbot ET1, from Galaxy General (银河通用, sometimes rendered Galaxy Universal). It's their first bipedal platform — they were previously known for the G1, a wheeled unit with an elevating torso used for retail and pharmacy shelf-stocking.

What I shot: I used my phone to capture this footage. Yes, I have more with my cinema camera, but I just wanted to get this out already since I'm kind of backlogged with my Sony camera footage.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/NCETyNYtbJw

What I want to flag, and why I think it's worth discussing:

The ET1 has articulation in places most humanoids on that floor didn't use. Head movement on more than one axis, and lateral flexion at the waist rather than yaw only. More to the point, it was actually driving those joints during the routine — the head led into movements instead of holding a fixed forward orientation, and the torso participated in gestures rather than staying rigid above the hips.

I want to be careful with the claim. Other platforms list neck and waist DOF on their spec sheets, so the hardware existing isn't the interesting part. What stood out was the allocation decision. DOF in the neck and waist adds mass high in the kinematic chain, complicates whole-body balance, and buys you nothing on the locomotion and manipulation benchmarks the field mostly competes on. Most programs spend that budget on legs and hands instead. Galbot appears to have spent it on expressive motion, which reads as a deliberate product choice rather than an incidental one.

I'd be interested in whether people here read that the same way, or whether there's a control-side reason I'm not seeing. What other human eye robots do you know that have head articulation as well as torso?

Will post more footage later, interviews, robot company contacts, robot comparison (yes i own some).

Happy to answer questions about anything I saw on the floor.

Hi everyone,

I’m currently working on a cleaning robot / autonomous mobile robot (AMR) and I’m looking for advice on the best software stack to use.

The robot will need to autonomously navigate indoor environments, create and use maps, avoid obstacles, and plan efficient cleaning paths.

The main capabilities I’m looking for are:

• SLAM and mapping
• Autonomous navigation
• Obstacle detection and avoidance
• Path planning / coverage path planning
• Sensor and camera integration
• Motor and hardware control
• Localization
• Ability to handle dynamic obstacles such as people and furniture

I’m considering ROS 2 as the main robotics framework, potentially using Nav2 and other ROS 2 packages, but I’d like to hear from people who have actually developed similar robots.

What software/framework would you recommend for this type of project, and why?

If you have experience building cleaning robots, vacuum robots, floor-cleaning robots, or similar AMRs, I’d especially appreciate hearing about your software architecture and what you would do differently if starting the project today.

Thanks in advance!

Im currently studying mechanical engineering at the university of Maryland, and realized that a lot of the typical mech E jobs don't seem very appealing to me. I was initially studying psychology on a premed track but switched over to engineering because I was interested in math and physics. I didn't really have much guidance when it came to picking which subfield in engineering I would major in, so I resulted in doing Mech E. I interned at Hutchinson last summer as a design engineer and it upset me so much that I barely used anytg wa taught in school. So after I started to reconsider if I had picked the right major. My friend who is getting his masters in computer science spoke to me about robotics and all the different research opportunities and I was really intrigued. Im well aware that saying I want to do research in robotics is very very vague, but what steps can I take to genuinely find a domain within robotics ill enjoy and how can I as a current Mech E start my endeavors into getting into that area of robotics? Only thing I have planned is to network with my professors to see if they're doing any research related to robotics and reading research papers. But then again since I don't know what area in robotics I want to focus on is that even a good idea?

Hello!

I have an idea for a sculpture that would involve some kind of automated mechanism. It's hard to describe it in words, but essentially I want to make a realistic heart out of paper mache and chicken wire, leaving the inside hollow. Inside of the "exoskeleton" I want to put some kind of pump mechanism filled with fake blood that can squirt the blood out in a heartbeat pattern.

I have pretty much no experience doing this kind of thing (im not even sure if this is considered robotics) so I wanted to see if anyone has suggestions on how I can do this in the simplest most beginner friendly way.

This is going to be my biggest project. I did some research but am stuck and I just don't know how to proceed.

Am also looking for someone who is willing to work on this project. I mean you so the same thing in your home and I do the same. We will keep sharing insights and also if successful we can push the project to double pendulum balancing.

Also has anyone else made/worked on the similar projects?

Also can you guys tell me what tools are required to make this project?

Thanks

Hi Reddit. I am not in the field but I am very interested in the development of robotics. (Just curious) probably not going into the field but very interested and excited about future of robotics

1. What is going on right now? Overall.
   
2. What are some major problems in robotics and major direction?
   
3. Which specific labs in which universities or companies are doing well on their research direction?
   
4. What are some of the leading universities labs and companies globally?
   
5. What is academia compared to industry?
   
6. Where are the centers of robotics?

I would really appreciate any inside perspective.

Those may sound like some naive questions but I am not in the field so forgive me.

I'm new, I'm a Mechanical Engineering Major, with Minor in Robotics, Diploma in Mechatronics. I know, electronics, kinematics, design and dynamics of a Robotic Arm, But I want to learn what the industry is using, that I researched was ROS 2, Gazebo, RViz (correct me if I'm wrong). I also took a course on Udemy for ROS2; but I believe that the course content is little slow and sluggish. I have very less time (about a year) before I stand infront of an interviewer; and have to speed up. Can anyone experienced in the field guide me a little bit. Thankyou so much for your time.