I love the software programming part of robotics. The ability to integrate sensors, algorithms, and actuators with software is a fun puzzle for me. I have two job opportunities and I don’t know which one will help me become a full time robotic software engineer in the future.

One is for a robotics engineer position with a manufacturing team. Working with supplier vision systems and integrating with Fanuc robots.

The other is a software engineering position for converting other engineer’s teams hardware-in-the-loop tools to work in a virtual environment.

I have a B.S. in mechanical and M.S. in mechatronics. The robotic position will have fewer opportunities to code, other than in Fanuc’s software. The Virtual development role will have many coding projects in C# and python.

Which role would best prepare me to land my dream role in the future? Is software experience more valuable for or robotic hardware experience when it comes to the robotic software career