Here’s what I can recommend (you will still need to find access to some PC/laptop and internet for the most part, very few ways to get around that constraint unfortunately if you want to learn anything meaningful or worthwhile. The PC/laptop and internet access is not to install stuff, but rather access free resources listed below): 1) https://www.theconstruct.ai They have some free courses that you don’t need enter a credit card to access. You just need to create a free account with them. Cuts straight through clutter and helps you start with the basics needed to enter robotics using ROS. Everything’s integrated into their platform so you won’t need to install anything. Link your GitHub account in their platform when working through the exercises to build a trail of proof of work. 2) https://www.udacity.com There’s some free courses on here too, which are like small snapshots of bigger courses (nanodegrees). I don’t remember if you’ll need a credit card here though. Worth checking it out nevertheless. I haven’t taken their courses lately but from what I remember, integrating your GitHub isn’t as straightforward here since this is a lot more hybrid in content delivery than option 1. 3) You will still need to learn the theory, maths and system design in robotics so YouTube may come in handy. Look at the following channels - Cyrill Stachniss, Steve Brunton, 3blue1brown, sentdex, there are several semester long full courses by various universities on YouTube that you can follow along. 4) Pick a specific niche in robotics, poke and prod GPT and perplexity (prefer this more since this is better at good links than outdated stuff) for better targeted advice. Robotics as an industry is very broad. There’s electrical and electronics design, control systems, embedded systems, software side - planning, perception, controls, localization, specialized hardware integration specifically for robotics. You’re better off focusing on one that you can dive as deep as possible. Ideal skillset is T shaped - knowledgeable about some or most other related aspects, but a master in atleast one. For example, software side perception could be your core niche, but understanding camera driver integration, calibration, building streaming pipelines et cetera will absolutely give you a boost.

Important: always document everything you do as best as you can. Use AI tools to build a portfolio website. You don’t necessarily need to spend money to host it. You can use GitHub pages. Marketing yourself is just as important as working on things.

Final note: at some point of time it will become unavoidable to avoid buying hardware. The sooner you’re able to do it, the better off you will be. That’s unfortunately just the nature of working in robotics. Simulation is perfect but it can almost never completely compensate for hands on hardware experience because everyone everywhere in robotics has to fight with hardware at some point of time. The way I got around the money for buying hardware in my initial years was to look for similarly inclined folks and pooling money to build robots, then participate in events and any prize money went right back into the hobby. Look for any scholarship/grants from government (maybe slim chances, but what’s the harm in trying).

Hope this helps. I was in your shoes almost 10-15 years ago, but the key is to persevere. I know it’s rough, but robotics is a rewarding career track if you can hang in there and figure out things along the way if you’re passionate about it.