Robotics Employment Opportunities: Building a Career in Robotics

Preparing for robotics employment opportunities? It’s a complex landscape, but having the right skills and mindset can make all the difference in getting jobs in robotics. Let’s delve into some common dilemmas, problems, problem-solving procedures, and robotics technology job acquisition tactics. 

The Open Source Dilemma

Let’s understand the Dilemma through ROS’s example. ROS is open source and a lot of people’s work is also open source built on ROS. So you can directly get the code get the repository run it, and you might feel that now you understand everything. But running a simulation or someone else’s repository might give you a sense of accomplishment. But that does not necessarily mean that you understand every single aspect of this simulation, which is crucial for long-term success in robotics careers. 

Here’s another interesting statistic Udemy reported completion rate is only 30%, and an average of 70% of students don’t even start the course they enrolled in. Most experienced people get the code and just run it, and they don’t want to understand everything. However, it is essential to understand the underlying principles and not just the results. 

Problem-Solving Procedures in Robotics Job Interviews

The question is how to solve these dilemmas. The answer is a solving explanation. For example, you’ll have an interview for senior robotics engineering. The interviewers will ask you some questions relevant to the project for the product they were working on. You have to explain the project. Maybe it will take 15 to 20 minutes, or it can go for hours to explain the problem-solving techniques that you’ll use. So companies are only interested in the practices that you use to solve your problems during the projects, and they are very valuable for the company. Because they want to check if this candidate has the capabilities to solve the problem and ideas and the way he generated the ideas matters to the company.

So, let’s take an example of a problem-solving procedure for robotics: Let’s say we want to move the robot to a specific location through the joint angles, but we don’t know the end effector point. We have the angles for the joints. First, we download the robot and bring in the simulation, and the robot continues to follow. Now we understand that in ROS, that happens because of the ROS 2 controllers and the Dynamics.

So we solve that problem by adding Dynamics first and then all of the joint controllers, and then we write a controller configuration file includes all of these things into URDF, and then launch the robot, which stands perfectly in the simulation we write a node for the joint trajectory controller. We give the name of the topic and the joints providing the value and send it to the robot, and the robot moves perfectly. 

The Importance of Controllers in Problem Solving

Here is what type of controller you are using and why. The second one is making the robot move smoothly joint trajectory controller is decided in this case and given that you must understand the ROS workflow, ROS file system and all the structure. 

Integration and Deployment in Robotics Projects

The next step is integration and deploying which means that once the whole simulation or the robotic project is complete you build the pipelines for deploying it to scale the whole process or integrate certain aspects into your project. But for all of this, you need to be really good at understanding how the structure has been built in ROS. 

Let’s take an example of dockerizing. If we build a complete system and we dockerize it then we utilize the stalker into a Linux. We deploy that on a Linux machine and a Windows machine. In both of the scenarios, it is working the same simulation, but we dockerize it. That’s why we are able to deploy it easily otherwise, we have to do a lot of things to make it work on Windows if built on Linux.

Similarly, when working on a project, you need to involve many libraries and be proficient at integrating them into your projects while maintaining Version Control, especially when working with ROS. The easiest integration is through the CMake list if you are building your own libraries, you put it in the CMake list compiler if it is able to find it then it is included in your project. 

The Role of Version Control and Testing in Robotics Careers

There are two practices in developing the projects that make you stand out even if it is Hardware or software. Those are Version Control and testing. So what is Version Control? What notion Version Control gives the company looks at it in the form of collaboration aspect of the person because it saves the history of what you are doing and so the file sharing between multiple people gets easy. 

Understand that giving files to others makes them collaborate on these files or features or an aspect that makes you a good person in a technical sense for the team. So they prefer you to use GitHub GitLab and other platforms that are there for version control, understanding, and implementing your software now. 

Also Read: Do I Need Java on My Computer in 2024 What You Should Know

The next one is testing which shows and puts the effect that this guy knows what he has built now, he is writing the code for testing it, and you write the test code. You write the test based on the company’s requirements based on the company’s interests which is a never-ending process. But you have to test and verify in a limited time. But these two aspects are plus points for beginners, and they make you stand out in a job application when you are explaining your project and when you are explaining your tests and the Version Control techniques that you have built for any project that you have done earlier. 

Understanding Company-Specific Requirements

Securing a job in robotics is not just about technical skills, for example, a company working on surgical robots. They might prefer someone with an understanding of FDA regulations of class a device or some background in biomechanics. Conversely, there might be a startup working on agricultural robots that might value adaptability and cultural fit over a specific experience in agricultural robots. So it varies upon the company’s Direction and leadership, and you have to understand or get a basic sense of what they are trying, what they have done already, and what their practices it, then you apply accordingly.

Preparing for Robotics Employment Opportunities

So in a nutshell, preparing for robotics employment opportunities, specifically the software side, is a multi-faceted problem, and it is not just running simulations, adding libraries, even running ROS, and saying I know all of the robotics. So you have to be really open to this and open to suggestions ask the industry leaders. Go to the workshops and Expos and understand how they are building their whole product and what was the role that I was applying for. You can also find a lot of people as robotics engineers and ask them questions can you help me give me consultancy or how can I become what you are right now? There are a lot of Consultants available, you can ask them, and you can get the path work on the path, and get the job.