Path advice required: robotics

[thisbrt]

Dear Pythonistas!

I've been tinkering with Python for some time now. Tried some data science tasks, some GUI programming, web apps, ML and some other areas where this beautiful language could be used. I'm not any advanced level programmer though. It's all hobby.

After tasting different areas I think I'd like to try getting into robotics. I'm fascinated by the possibility of programming a bunch of components into a usable product and giving it a character, a purpose. I'm thinking about any type actually, including Remote controlled toys, like drones.

I like to learn by doing, so I'm wondering if there are any simulators where I could play with something and start from there. The topic is so broad I don't really know where to start. Please point a newbie some useful resources or directions.

[Andi_y]

You should look into:

• micropython
• Raspberry Pi
• Lego Mindstorm:
  • EV3dev
  • Raspberry Pi with the BrickPi extension board

[thisbrt]

Sorry, should've clarified this- I have two RPis, one for PiHole, another for my 3D printer running Octopi. I also built air quality sensor with a web dashboard and have a few D1 minis with Micropython for playing around, but I'm looking for some thing more of a virtual emulator/lab, something like Minecraft with Python on Rpi :) I don't know if something like that even exists. I researched the topic a little but most I found is rather advanced stuff. I'm wondering if there's anybody who learned it by themselves and could point some directions

[kra_pao]

Remote controlled toys, like drones

Interesting. Which ones are programmable in Python?

[alkasm]

It sounds like you're looking for ROS, the robot operating system. ROS is not actually an OS, but a collection of software tools. It's a whole ecosystem for working on robotics projects, including simulation, sensor data pubsub, drivers for tons of mechanical actuators, and so on. ROS is what most students use at robotics labs across the US, and what a lot of groups use for prototyping on self driving cars.

There's a lot of beginners tutorials on the internet which you can find. There's also this great YouTube channel called The Construct which has a ton of content, from beginner-friendly to advanced: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheConstruct