Complete beginner

[nicoaguillen]

Hi all,

I have recently finished architecture school and during my time there I became interested in the use of robots in architecture. I have however looked into it mostly from a theoretical point of view so far and would love to get more into the practical side of things (now that school is not sucking up all my free time!). What I would like to ask you all is: if you were asked to point a complete beginner in robotics towards a particular software to learn, reading to do or skills to acquire (electrical, mechanic or else) what would these be?

Thank you in advance for your time, I am aware this is a pretty general and broad question. Apologies if this has already been answered, I did a quick search through the forum and wasn't able to find any similar posts.

Kind regards,
Nico

[Johannes @ Robots in Architecture]

Hello Nico,

Unfortunately, getting into the practical side of things will more or less require you to get access to a robot. Of course you can get the free version of KUKA|prc and start defining and simulating processes, but the main fun is having an actual robot move around ;)
Depending on where you are, there could be FabLabs with robots, or maybe universities that would enjoy a motivated volunteer (or PhD student). If you send me an eMail I can let you know if I know of any institution in your vicinity.
Regarding literature, you can access plenty of papers via CuminCAD, and there are also the Rob|Arch books. If your university has got a Springer subscription you may be able to download them as an eBook for free from e.g. the library. They are also available for free to members of the Association - and you can of course also buy them!
Regarding skills: Robotics is an extremely wide field, so basically any skill will come handy at some point. That being said, it definitely makes sense to look into Arduino and the Raspberry Pi. Not so much to build your own robot, but rather for developing new tools. E.g. creating your own gripper, or a custom control interface for an existing tool. We recently set up a Windows IoT-based interface for controlling our new milling spindle, for example.

Depending on where you are (ideally Europe), it may be possible to get a mostly working robot for next to free if you find a company that is replacing old machines. For example, here's a company selling an OK-looking robot for less than 4000EUR, so you can imagine that they paid only a fraction of that when they themselves bought it: http://www.ebay.at/itm/Roboter-KUKA-KR125-1-KRC1-/182202678398?hash=item2a6c203c7e:g:o~QAAOSwzLlXhAOH
Of course that advice is only helpful if you've got the space to set a robot up. Small robots are unfortunately quite a bit more rare and expensive.

Hope that helps!
Best,
Johannes

[nicoaguillen]

Hello Johannes,

Thank you very much for your reply, it's much appreciated! I look forward to delving deeper into this.

Best,
Nico