Ryan Mitchell

MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) is a lightweight, publish-subscribe messaging protocol designed for connecting IoT devices and robots over unreliable networks with minimal bandwidth. When we talk about MQTT robotics, we are talking about the de facto standard for moving data between robots, sensors, dashboards, and cloud systems. Robots need a way to talk. Whether … Read more

Our team has spent the last decade integrating PLCs and robot controllers on factory floors, and the most common question we still hear from new engineers is the one driving this guide. A programmable logic controller (PLC) is a ruggedized industrial computer designed to control manufacturing processes such as assembly lines, robotic cells, and automated … Read more

Robot calibration software is a specialized tool that identifies and corrects geometric errors in a robot’s kinematic model so that the machine reaches positions it was never quite hitting from the factory. In simple terms, the software measures where the robot actually goes, compares that to where its controller thinks it should go, and then … Read more

A digital twin in robotics is a real-time virtual replica of a physical robot that stays synchronized with its sensor data, behavior, and environment. Instead of guessing how a robot will perform, engineers can run experiments, train AI models, and catch failures inside a simulator that mirrors the real machine down to the last joint … Read more

If you’ve ever wondered how a robot decides where to move, you’ve landed in the right place. Path planning is the brain behind every autonomous system, and two algorithms dominate the conversation: A* (A-Star) and RRT (Rapidly-exploring Random Tree). I work with both regularly in robotics projects, and each one has clear strengths, clear weaknesses, … Read more

You spend three days training a quadruped in simulation. Reward curves look great, the robot walks smoothly, and your video clip is ready to post. Then you flash the policy to the real hardware, and the robot immediately falls over, twitches, or wanders into a wall. If that scene feels familiar, you have hit the … Read more

If you have ever worked with ROS and tried to figure out where your robot’s sensors are pointing, you have probably run into the term “TF Tree.” I remember my first week debugging a robot arm that kept picking up the wrong objects. The problem was not my code. The problem was that I did … Read more

If you have started working with ROS 2 and heard people mention DDS, you are not alone in wondering what it actually does. DDS is the hidden engine that makes ROS 2 nodes find each other, share sensor data, and survive flaky Wi-Fi on a busy factory floor. In this guide, I will walk you … Read more

ROS 1 reached end of life on May 31, 2025, and teams still running Noetic on production robots are now running unsupported software. After two years of triaging bug reports, security advisories, and package incompatibilities for our own robotics clients, our team has a clear view on when the migration is worth it and when … Read more

Offline robot programming (OLP) is a method of programming industrial robots using computer software in a virtual environment, eliminating production downtime by removing the need to stop the actual robot for programming. Also called OLRP (offline robot programming), this approach lets engineers create, test, and refine robot programs on a PC, then deploy the finished … Read more