What You Will Build

What You Will Build: From Simulation to Real Hardware Architecture

Goal

See the full trajectory of the course as one growing application, so every later lesson has a place in your mental map.

What You Will Build

Module by module, the same application grows:

Stage Modules You add
A running workcell 0, 3 UR5 + Robotiq + depth camera in Gazebo
A controlled robot 4 ros2_control controllers + MoveIt2 planning + IK
A first application 5 blind pick-and-place (fixed poses)
A seeing application 6 vision-guided pick-and-place (simulated camera)
An industrial application 7 motion/gripper/perception interfaces + task manager + Behavior Tree
A portfolio project 8 your own capstone, published
A real deployment (study) 9 robot bridge, real gripper I/O, Jetson perception, 6D pose, hand-eye calibration

Why This Matters

Courses that jump between disconnected demos leave you with nothing at the end. Here, every module's output is the next module's input — like a real project.

Architecture Layer

All layers, introduced bottom-up (description → control → application → orchestration → deployment).

Files You Will Touch

  • COURSE_MAP.md — the same table with every lesson linked.

Files You Should Not Touch Yet

src/ and config/ — Module 3 opens them.

Commands

None yet.

Step-by-Step Instructions

  1. Open COURSE_MAP.md and skim the module diagram.
  2. Mark the stage that matches your current level (many students can start Module 1 comfortably; if Docker is new to you, Module 2 has your back — but you do NOT need it before Module 0's demo).
  3. Read the Module 9 row: notice it is a case study — required hardware: none.

What You Should See

A clear before/after: you start by launching a simulation; you end owning an architecture you can defend in an interview.

How to Modify This for Your Own Application

The table above is also your adaptation roadmap: to port the lab to your own robot you re-walk stages A→B (new description + controllers + MoveIt config) and keep everything from stage C upward almost unchanged. That is the promise you will verify yourself in Module 9.

Common Mistakes

  • Planning to "do Module 9 with real hardware first". Resist it. The value of the hardware module is only visible after you own the simulated architecture.

Checkpoint

You can say in one sentence what each of Modules 3–8 adds to the application.

Expected Output

None — orientation.

Next Step

04_how_to_use_this_course.md

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