How do I learn robotics in 2025?

3 weeks ago 3

I'm not joking, but some of those Lego robotics kits can work just fine for getting your feet wet. Yes, even if they are made for kids.

When I started out, it was with microcontrollers, breadboards, sensors, actuators. And even though it was in college, I do wish I had just played around with more high-level stuff first.

A good starting point is learning to use ROS https://ros.org/. Once you learn ROS you can interact with/use a wide variety of robots. Robotics is a fairly multidisciplinary field though, so it really depends on what area of robotics you are interested in.

Start by deciding its purpose. The form will follow the purpose. If you know electrical engineering, you won't make as many mistakes as I have. If you know mechanical engineering, you won't take as long to design the components as it took me. If you're a competent programmer, you won't be as slow integrating the hardware into a cohesive whole as I am. If you've read The Design of Everyday Things, you're ahead of the curve in terms of making it accessible.