Ask HN: How to get started with robotics as a hobbyist?

I would always prefer to start with a kit that will work right a way end to end, than focus on each problem subset to do deep dive. so101 is a highly available 3d printed and servo motor based robotic arm. That can be combined with nvidia orin like sbc as a good starting point.

Worth to check also https://www.printables.com/ for small cute 3d printed robot projects that you can build using stm32 or esp32 boards. You shall check Adafruit/Sparkfun like websites for dev boards, they even support micro python for quick prototypes.

https://www.hackster.io/shahizat/running-lerobot-so-101-arm-...

Go through the ROS tutorials, using a simulated robot at first, then buy a tiny AMR kit and do the same thing IRL. Once you have those basics, you can ask yourself into which direction to go next, the obvious choices being 1) deeper into the research of the new-fashioned (bi-)manual manipulation (arms), or 2) more into business and actually build a real-world application for your mobile robot (which will involve a lot of tinkering with hardware). And +1 on what brudgers said. It's a hobby, so have fun.

Trying to build a robot is the way to start the robotics hobby. Reading about robots, studying physics etc. are different hobbies and fine in their own right, but not a robotics hobby.

There is no wrong way to do a hobby. Good luck.

Look for three papers on "integrated mental architecture" and personality, psychopathology then drill down to experimental robotics and begin from a standard text and devkit.