Robot as Software

Building a physical robot isn’t cheap—even when it’s the final
version. Designing a robot and testing it over and over again?
That takes a lot of tries. And likely more than a few failures on
the way to success. Luckily, simulation software is reducing the
scrap heap—and bringing down the costs of building robots from
the ground up. 

Kevin Knoedler shares how simulation software allows him to
program and design robots from home. And even though he doesn’t
have the budget or support of major research institutions like
DARPA, his robots still end up winning major competitions. Evan
Ackerman points out that winning those competitions takes a lot
of skills. But amateurs have more ways than ever to get started
with robotics. Louise Poubel explains how much time, energy, and
money is saved with robot simulation software—and how it’s not
just for the amateurs. And Dr. Timothy Chung reveals how
competitions like the DARPA Subterranean Challenge encourage
innovators to advance the field of robotics.


If you want to read up on some of our research on robot
simulation, you can check out all our bonus material over at
redhat.com/commandlineheroes. And follow along with the episode
transcript.