Learn to program robots for free, on your own time

Wanna-be robot programmers short on cash and time can learn what they need when and where they want.

Thanks to a new initiative from TurtleBot — an open-source development kit for rolling robot applications — anyone can learn robotics programming for free.

The company announced today it has put together a no-cost 30-session online tutorial geared towards teaching almost anyone how to use the Robot Operating System (ROS), a leading open-source robotics programming system, to run a TurtleBot.

The TurtleBot costs about $1,000 fully built, or less for those inclined to build them on their own. The robot is meant as an educational platform to help people “build a robot that can drive around your house, see in 3D, and have enough horsepower to create exciting applications.”

According to the company, the new tutorials were designed at a high-school level and would be expected to take three or four days — perhaps two weekends — to finish. “By the series end, developers will be able to direct their TurtleBot to bring them coffee to their desk,” the company said.

But what TurtleBot really is hoping for, it said, is not large numbers of coffee-bots rolling around, but rather a new generation of robot programmers.