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Ask HN: Best way to learn DIY robotics?

14 points by whiplash451 ↗ HN
I am a computer science person (programming, OSes). I would like to learn to build my own robots at home (e.g. a small wheeled robot with a camera wandering around). I am missing the knowledge of lower levels (arduino, circuits, motors, etc.)

What would be the best resources to learn this?

Thank you!

6 comments

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readonlybarbie
In the event that you don't purchase any physical parts for making controllable robots, you'll find similarities in programming game physics, which really is just a simulation of the world we live in and how to propell an object around that world.
nomel
Definitely. Robotics is 20% hardware, 80% software/control algs, for anything interesting. You can get very far with a virtual environment.
the_mcv
Honestly, just pick up some components (motors, webcams, sensors) from Amazon plus a Raspberry Pi. Google some tutorials on how to interface with those components programmatically.

Beyond that, ROS is the heavily adopted project that can help coordinate all in a robot system: https://www.ros.org/. It's a big project with a big learning curve.

Some newer platforms like Viam aim to simplify all of this: https://www.viam.com/