Career path for programming robots?

[david77]

Hello everyone,

What kind of background would you need to get into this?

Are there good colleges to go for this? I'm kinda of wary about that since I went to a local trade school for CNC machining, and the curriculum was completely outdated.

Would it be best to be trained by a company that services industrial robots like this?

Would it be best to be directly trained by a company like ABB, FANUC, Motoman, Kuka, etc? Is it best to specialize in programming a particular brand? Is it best to learn to program with a teach pendant or offline program with something like MasterCAM's RobotMaster or SputCAM Robot?

How helpful is it to learn maintenance as well? Or is that something that'd normally be left to someone who specializes in that?

How much does it cost, how long does it take, and what kind of wage or salary can you expect to make to start?

I was watching some videos of Kuka robots milling sculptures out of stone and it absolutely fascinated me, so I looked into what kind of education you'd need for this line of work and I'm having a hard time finding out what the best path would be.

Thank you!

[Johannes @ Robots in Architecture]

Hello David,

While I know many robotics engineers I'm not the expert on wages etc. Especially in our community there seem to be people from all kind of backgrounds, from architecture, to engineering, and even art and design.
It seems to me that engineers are always in high demand and at least here companies also hire people without specific robot experience (e.g. an electrician or programmer who hasn't worked with robots before) and then arrange courses etc. for them to get them up to speed.
However, I don't see a huge overlap between the people who set up robots and those who program robots for CAM applications. Often the programmers don't really work that much with the robot, but use their CAM software in the office while other staff runs the programs and deals with maintenance etc.

Just some remarks, maybe someone else can give you more specific feedback!

Best,
Johannes