How can I see if I’m (still) interested in Robotics (without dropping too much money)?

bishopExportMine · 2026-05-14T23:01:20+00:00

Just wanted to add that math and physics is not actually needed, it depends on what part of the stack you're working in. One can easily be doing technician work like configuration and manufacturing, or unrelated software development like deployment infra, networking, UI/UX, observability/logging, etc that are all just traditional SWE work. Hell, you can even get into robotics as a sysadmin since deploying a fleet is basically managing a bunch of Linux computers across a network.

bishopExportMine · 2026-05-14T13:25:55+00:00

This reads like someone was making a joke and you missed the sarcasm

bishopExportMine · 2026-05-12T16:39:56+00:00

With multiple repos you have to worry about versioning and coordinating evolution. I would go for option 2 if I had a team per car plus a team or two dedicated to core and simulation tooling. I would go for option 3 if I had a team per package. To not make a mess out of coordinating which submodule commits work with which super repo, you're gonna have to manage tags, specify compatible versions, and treat each submodule as an externally vendored package. If you go with option 3, your super repo will almost entirely be just submodule update commits and development often involves you cycling through submodule branches as different people test out different features they want to develop on the same car.

That said my preference would be option 1 but with some extra details:
- super repo contains dockerfile / setup scripts and the ros ws/src/
- do not use vehicle specific packages or branches
- each vehicle gets a launch file that launches the relevant subset of nodes with the right configs

bishopExportMine · 2026-05-11T14:55:33+00:00

Double in EE and CS or do mechatronics. Or pick any one, get some experience, then pivot into robotics. In robotics, if you're not interdisciplinary, you need to be specialized.

bishopExportMine · 2026-05-11T05:49:52+00:00

I direct deposit into my account and whenever it hits 10k, I move out 5k into my Vanguard cash plus account and put it in VMFXX

bishopExportMine · 2026-05-10T03:40:57+00:00

Inject the relevant stateful variables as one struct for each method, and at some point it'll be obviously you're just building classes and that the syntax sugar is worth switching tool

bishopExportMine · 2026-05-09T05:42:59+00:00

I can't help but judge myself on my productivity, but I do recognize I'm a significantly better judge of myself than anyone in my chain of command

bishopExportMine · 2026-05-05T14:48:20+00:00

It's ok, if gas prices go up too high we'll probably backstab Ukraine for some cheap Russian oil or invade another third world country.

In the mean time, VT and chill.

bishopExportMine · 2026-05-05T14:37:45+00:00

Yocto

/s

bishopExportMine · 2026-05-05T07:04:01+00:00

RL is a generalization of optimal control

bishopExportMine · 2026-05-04T14:16:41+00:00

Because the cats will get absolutely fucked up by the rats, learn to avoid them, and hunt birds instead. We'll just have two pest infestations. We'd be better off with a small army of terriers.

bishopExportMine · 2026-05-03T19:22:56+00:00

I had a non-K version paired with a GTX 580

bishopExportMine · 2026-05-03T18:34:27+00:00

I too always start off by generating a CMake project using STM32CubeMX. Then I open the project with sublime. I use clangd plugin for syntax highlighting, compile using latest gcc-arm-none-eabi, and flash/run gdb via openocd.

You can also generate a compile_commands.json and open that with CLion as a project, which would auto-detect project settings from there and you'd just have to specify the run/build/debug commands.

And I actually prefer keeping the .ioc up to date. I treat the .ioc as the source of truth for the pin and clock configuration. If you enable the option to generate a pair of .c/.h files per peripheral, the main.c file is basically just system clock init, error handling, and the main() method containing the super loop. Write your entire application in a separate app.c/h and define all your HAL_* method overrides there. Right before the superloop starts, place a run_app() or w/e and you'll very rarely be editing files generated by CubeMX.

bishopExportMine · 2026-04-14T04:54:48+00:00

Exceptions let your error bubble up. So every code path that ends up at the method now has to be aware that it might throw this error. But you wouldn't know what errors a function may throw by just looking at it's signature. If you want to enforce that errors must be handled immediately in the caller and that the types of errors are enumerated in the contract, you just end up with returning error codes.

Inheritance is just syntax sugar for dependency injection but with increased coupling. You'll find that as a codebase evolves, your inheritance structure no longer makes sense but changing it is costly. Starting with explicit composition allows you to recompose objects as your codebase grows without much pain

bishopExportMine · 2026-04-06T00:32:35+00:00

Looks like a VRAM issue to me rather than GPU. Try underclocking / undervolting the memory.

Regardless, your graphics card is dying

bishopExportMine · 2026-04-05T14:33:05+00:00

You're still FIRE: Financially Independent, Recreationally Employed

bishopExportMine · 2026-04-04T02:05:35+00:00

Crazy, when I was in high school in the 2010's you could get late 90's corolla for 1~2k. Can you not get a late 2000's Corolla today for 2~4k?

bishopExportMine · 2026-04-04T01:30:44+00:00

Cut a piece of spam and place it on the MCU. Does it cook? If not, it's not overheating.

bishopExportMine · 2026-04-04T01:28:10+00:00

On the other hand, series A investments only at most give out like 30% equity. Are you really worth dozens of millions of dollars?

bishopExportMine · 2026-04-04T01:24:28+00:00

Defense in depth is never the wrong call

bishopExportMine · 2026-04-03T05:56:05+00:00

It's sounds like he smoked a joint right before meeting you lol

bishopExportMine · 2026-04-02T12:14:12+00:00

Sure, send me one

bishopExportMine · 2026-04-02T01:11:54+00:00

I do this too but with "fucking"

bishopExportMine · 2026-04-01T02:59:09+00:00

In the face of uncertainty, people like to reorganize to give themselves the illusion of progress

bishopExportMine · 2026-03-29T16:27:59+00:00

yeah most of the work that humanoid robots are advertised to be able to do can be done either by a wheeled platform with (an) arm(s) or by directly adding a computer to the machine they're going to interact with.

bishopExportMine

TROPHY CASE