At this time, the author works for a small robotics company in Darmstadt, Germany. The company's product is an industrial lightweight robotic arm - aiming for collaborative robotics solutions in automotive, pharmaceutical, and every other industries.
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| Fig. 1: Self-built 3 DOF robot - using 3 servos, LEGO pieces, Arduino board, and ROS. |
[YouTube gave a warning that the video below is unlisted - "Think twice before you share." The author has decided to go ahead as the author himself is featured in the video.]
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Coding
The author has to delve into software development with ROS (Robot Operating System): supporting the further development of the software to operate the robotic arm above. The languages C++ and Python and the Qt library play pivotal roles for ROS.
The author took a crash course for Python on Codecademy, right before taking the current job.
Linux
For ROS, the author has to opt to Ubuntu. At the office, the Unity desktop is set to default (K.I.S.S. - keep it simple, stupid). But at home, the author has also installed Ubuntu on his main and old laptops: with the desktop Gnome for the former and KDE for the latter.
Consequently the author has come to enjoy coding with Bash scripting on Linux terminal. The author has put this newly acquired skill in the maintenance of his comic book archives.
Version Controlling
Version controlling with Git is also a part of the job - thus making the author shifting slowly to Git from SVN, which the author has accustomed to since his postgraduate days at Hochschule Darmstadt.
For private / independent projects, the author uses his Dropbox for repository purposes. This is not ideal, as it doubles the storage usage for every single project on the local drive. Another option is to use the public repository provided by Github, or use its other paid options.
