Why I quit my job in web development to start robotics

I’ve always been attracted by new technologies: VR, IoTs, robotics… Also passionate about the web, I worked in this field for almost 10 years. My career is atypical. IT security, entrepreneurship, web marketing and for the last years, full stack development.

It’s not you, it’s me

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Although participating in stimulating projects, a form of weariness settled in my professional life. I get bored in my everyday work. There is an infinity of things to discover in web development but creating architectures, designing new APIs, does not motivate me anymore.

I’ve been interested in machine learning for a long time. I’ve done many experiments in natural language processing and I’ve been wanting to deepen my understanding in other areas like computer vision. Robotics always made me dream but I never had the opportunity to start any side projects (lack of time, the electronic part scares me a little because I’m not manual and a whole bunch of other excuses).

The urge to get started has been growing for months. In anticipation I managed to put money aside, enough to invest in material, books or anything useful to my learning. Most importantly, I have the support of my girlfriend. She wasn’t scared when I started talking to her about my project and she even encouraged me. Then I finally took the leap. I gave my notice of resignation to my employer. In less than three months I will be able to devote myself to learning!

A huge challenge is coming

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I usually have a self-taught approach, whether for programming, marketing or IT security. I experiment, I make projects and I learn what is necessary to bring them to term. It’s a method that works well for me and it’s therefore naturally what I’m about to do with robotics.

I have a home robot project that should be able to learn simple actions like operating switches or manipulating small objects. The goal is to create a robot capable of tasks as diverse as turning on the coffee machine in the morning before you wake up or opening the fridge and grabbing you a beer.

It may be great to have all the objects we use every day connected but I think it’s not always the best approach. Instead of a “smart” fridge, “smart” oven, “smart” light bulbs and so on, why don’t we have a robot able to use the old dumb objects we already have in our home?

Here’s my project! I know it’s going to be a long journey but I’m really excited to begin. I started to find out about the methods and tools used in the robotics industry to make such projects. It’s difficult to find structured content, more specifically aimed at web developers wishing to start robotics. That’s why I’ve planned to share everything I’ll do during my project, so others could benefit from my mistakes and successes.

My next story will be about the requirements I need to learn before I really start and the program I’m going to pursue. If you don’t want to miss anything I invite you to follow me! I hope you guys enjoyed this story :)