What skills are needed to be successful at robotics?

Question

I'm considering studying to be a robotics engineer. The desire to work in that field is definitely there.. but I'm wondering what my chances of success would be.

Generally I'm good with mental tasks of any sort such as programming, maths, physics, etc, and I think i'd be able to do electrical work such as soldering wires, changing batteries, etc. However, I'm not so good with things of a physical nature where I have to use my hands. For example, if you give me some vegetables to slice and dice, all of them will be diced un-evenly and some will look ugly. This might be because I have poor mind-hand coordination or because of a lack of concentration.

Thoughts?

Answer 1

Very few people are born experts at anything. To become good at slicing vegetables you would have to practice, just as with anything else in life. So if you want something bad enough, I'm sure you can learn to improve mind-hand coordination and address your lack of concentration. So if it's really what you want, then commit to it and go for it. Just my 5 cents.

Answer 2

Everyone in a business setting ends up being a specialist anyway... so if you want to do mechatronics, that's fine, you're just more on the software end of it. Or else, go do some practice with tools and coordination... it's just another skill, it takes practice like anything else. Go build some RC cars or helicopters, that'll get you sorted pretty quickly on the mechanical side.

Answer 3

Robotics is a very large field. You have Universities doing research, consumer robotics like the Romba from iRobot, military RPV, and industrial robots to name a few. You can find jobs doing just programming, just electrical, or just mechanical. Of course your chances are better if you are skilled in several areas. There is no single career path that leads to robotics. My own background is in Avionics (electronics for aircraft) from that I moved into automated test equipment, to automated packaging, and and finally into robotics where I teach programming for industrial robots, even though I have little formal training in programming. I have coworkers who started as machinists and others who have PHDs in mathematics or masters in computer science. You do need a willingness to learn and the ability to adapt to a fast changing very technical field.

Answer 4

I was in this position a few years ago. I am an experienced software engineer and wanted my career to drift towards robotics. I'm not completely there yet, but I feel my work has already paid off a little.

As you saw on other posts here, Robotics is a very large area o knowledge, mainly because it encompasses three other very large areas of knowledge. I can tell you beforehand it is humanly impossible to be very good at all three of them: Mechanical Engineering, Electronics and Computer Science. IMHO, the later is the most challenging of all.

My advice is to think about a robotics project that stimulates your intellect (mine was autonomous rovers) and start from scratch... mechanics design, electronics and higher level programming.

In order to do that, you will need to do a lot of research on all three areas along the way.

If you want to speed up the process, get into a formal academic program that teaches classes in stuff that is pertinent to robotics.

After a while, you will realize what the field is really about and re-direct your learning path. It takes a while, and it takes a lot of hard work and dedication, but the outcome is very worthy.

Answer 5

In a nutshell to be a Roboticist ....one should try to have the following attributes;

1. Have an appreciation for stable and optimal design. Good design often saves hundreds of lines of coding
2. Be good with basic electronics (if you know the pins by heart then you are some ace)
3. Be adventurous, ready to experiment with newer hardware/ software. Robotics is a very dynamic field. Newer (and sleeker) hardware may be available than the ones in the laboratory manual.
4. Mathematics ! ...... well.... you will may not need plenty of it ! .... however is sure an add-on if you know a good deal , helps in robotic simulators, embedded programming and algorithms
5. Comfortable to program in C,C++,Ada,Java (Java is a Big Hit with Roboticists, like Lua is with Game Programmers). Often one may come across completely different programming language, be ready to learn newer programming languages and tools.
6. Robotics is a multidisciplinary avenue, one will never be an ace of everything.... to be a good Roboticist one must know his/her limitations !
7. ....and if it doesn't work at the first go ... don't start to kick it !... have some patience .....also, a cup of coffee may help !

I guess that is enough of wisdom to last some time ! Best of luck !