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Should you start a career in Robotics?

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“I work with robots”. It sounds cool, doesn’t it? But many people still don’t know exactly what it means to work with robots. Those who do want to know if robotics is a good career. And if you’re reading this you’re probably wondering if it would be a good choice for YOU.

The short answer is Yes, Robotics is a vast and fascinating industry, and it can be a worthwhile career path. However whether or not that will be the case for you will depend on a lot of factors. 

To help you figure that out for yourself, we’ll first talk a bit about what it means to have a career in robotics. Then we’ll talk about why anyone would want to have a career in robotics. And then finally, we’ll talk about how you can decide if it’s the right choice for you. But first, let’s start with what a career in robotics actually means.

What does it mean to have a career in Robotics?

If you have a hard time putting a box around robotics as a career, you’re not alone. Even people in this field have a hard time defining the full scope of robotics. This isn’t because the concept itself is difficult, but because it’s very broad. A robot is a machine that autonomously performs a task in a repeatable and controlled fashion. That might sound simple at first, but there is so much involved that there isn’t a single field of study that completely covers everything you need to know. To help you understand what this means, the following are some of the major career groups within robotics. 

Careers in Robotics Hardware

This group deals with the part of the robot that you can see and touch. This group is home to your Mechanical, Electrical and Electronics, and Material engineers. The mechanical engineer in this field is responsible for making sure that the robot can move, and perform its tasks many times over in a safe and efficient manner. The electrical and electronics engineer designs the wiring and circuitry required to power the robot. And the material engineer decides what materials to make the robot out of in order to achieve certain performance benchmarks.

In reality, the engineering team might not be segmented in this way. Depending on the scale of the robot, one person might be responsible for all three aspects. In the case of a larger project, the team would likely include mechanical or electrical engineering technicians. They do much of the actual heavy lifting involved in setting up, maintaining, and repairing the robots.

Careers in Robotics Software

Without the code that tells the machine you have built what to do, what you have is somewhere between a pile of parts and some kind of contemporary art. The code that drives the robot is an equally important part of robotics and there are many career opportunities in this field. This is where your computer science majors and computer engineers could work. There are different platforms for writing this kind of code, each designed with a certain system in mind. These platforms vary in difficulty and purpose, and some people can make a living by working with only one of them. The programming team would be responsible for figuring out the computing requirements for the robot they are trying to build as well as writing the code for it. 

Careers in the Exploration of Robotics

Outside those two groups, there’s another part of robotics that is also very important: Learning. There is a lot to learn in this rapidly-advancing field, and the people leading this exploration have very useful careers in robotics as well. This is the academic part of robotics. Your scientists and research-focused engineers fall into this category. They continue to advance what we know about the capabilities of robots and work to discover new ways in which robotics can improve our lives. Another part of this group would be the teachers and instructors that train others in the field of robotics. As programs that focus specifically on robotics become more popular, the number of people required to teach them will also increase.

What are the benefits of a career in Robotics?

But what’s so cool about being able to say “I work with robots”? Why are more and more people drawn to the field of robotics? Well for most people, it would be because of one or more of the following factors: interest, earnings, and impact.

Interesting and engaging field of study

In a field as large as this one, and that is growing as fast, it is impossible to learn everything you’ll ever need to know. The technology involved in robotics continues to change at such a speed that the only way to keep up is to be hands-on in the industry. Even with that, it feels like you’re always learning something new. As a robotics engineer, for example, you would need to have a working knowledge of both mechanical and electrical principles. You would also need to, at the very least, understand the concept of computer programming. Each new project will come with a unique set of questions that you will need to find answers to. If you want a job that’ll keep you engaged, you have a high chance of finding it in the field of robotics.

Lucrative field of study

According to Indeed, the average robotics engineer will earn over $94,900 in the USA, which is almost $5,000 more than the average mechanical engineer. This is dependent on a lot of other factors, but it should give you a good picture of the tax bracket you’re likely to end up in when you go into robotics. In certain niches, you can even earn a lot more. For example, those who manage to bag a job at NASA earn an average salary that is well over $100,000. Besides that, the concept of scalability is baked into robotics, and scalability is how you achieve levels of wealth that would not be possible by earning a salary.

Can make a positive impact on society

Another reason why you might want to consider a career in robotics is because of the kind of good that can be done with it. Here are a few examples.

  • Zipline, a company focused on automating logistics, designed an autonomous drone that can fly at speeds of over 110km/hr, cover a distance of 150 km on a single charge, and deliver a package by parachute without stopping or slowing down. It started out helping hospitals and clinics in Rwanda by delivering medical supplies.
  • The Thermite RS2-T2 is a fire-fighting bot that is designed to go where fire-fighters can’t. It is fitted with heat shielding and an impressive water output to put out tougher fires in a safer way.
  • Other robots like PrecisionHawk, FINDER, and RoboSimian aid the work to save lives during a disaster by performing reconnaissance, scanning for survivors under debris, and physically entering an active disaster site. 

These are examples of robots being used to save and protect human lives. As such, the people working on these technologies are having a major impact on society through their work. If you choose to join them, you can too.

How can you decide if you should take on a career in Robotics?

Even if robotics is an engaging and worthwhile field of study, there’s no guarantee that it would be a good match for YOU. People are different, and so are their circumstances. So how can you tell if you’re likely to enjoy working in robotics? Try answering the following questions.

Do you like math?

Or maybe it’s better to ask “Do you hate math?”. To go into robotics as a career, at the bare minimum you have to be comfortable with taking on complex mathematics. Now I’m not saying you should be an expert in mathematical theory. However, if you can’t stand the thought of difficult math problems, you might want to start looking for a different career option. At every stage of your learning process, and even when you start working, you will be solving a lot of math problems. This question is also about how you are when tackling other analytical problems that are unrelated to math. If you hate that kind of slow and sometimes tedious analytical process, robotics is probably not for you.

Do you prefer working with people or things?

Studies have shown that this question is a very good way to guide your search for a career. People who are more interested in things will likely do better in the STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths). Consequently they would be a better fit for robotics. Those who prefer to work with people naturally gravitate towards careers in the HEAL fields. This term was coined by a writer named Richard Reeves and refers to Healthcare, Education, Administration, and Literacy. If you don’t already know which one of these groups you fit into, try to notice the things that catch your attention. Also, think back to any jobs or projects you enjoyed in the past and try to place them in one of the two groups. If you conclude that you prefer working with things, then you are way more likely going to be happy with a career in robotics.

Do you love learning?

This question is important because, like with many high-end careers, you’ll never be able to learn everything there is to know about robotics; only enough to get the job done. As such, you should be prepared to have to learn something new every workday. It is also a relatively new field, and the boundaries and rules of the game are changing every day. If you are not actively improving on and expanding what you know, you will end up behind the curve very quickly.

Conclusion

Robotics is an amazing career path, but deciding if it is the one for you still requires a lot of thought and research. There are many different paths you can take in this field. If you choose right, you will be rewarded with engaging and impactful work, a good paycheck, and a pretty cool-sounding job title.

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