A one-page order for learning robotics from zero. It lists skills and the kind of project that proves each one. It makes no promise about jobs or pay. Adjust the pace to your own time.
Stage 1: electronics and Arduino basics
- Skills: Ohm’s law, LEDs and resistors, reading a datasheet, digital and analogue pins, PWM.
- Proof: a blinking and dimming LED board, then a sensor reading shown on the Serial Monitor.
- Use: the LED resistor calculator and the formula cheat sheet.
Stage 2: motion
- Skills: motor drivers, H-bridge, servos, encoders, simple speed control.
- Proof: a two-wheel robot that drives a measured distance.
- Use: the wheel speed calculator and costed project builds.
Stage 3: sensing and control
- Skills: filtering, PID control, line and distance sensing, state machines.
- Proof: a line follower or obstacle avoider with a written test log.
- Use: the test log template.
Stage 4: connected and software-heavy robots
- Skills: ESP32, Wi-Fi and MQTT, basic Linux, Git, then ROS 2.
- Proof: a robot you can control and monitor over a network, with code on Git.
- Use: the robots hub and the error library.
Stage 5: arms, industry and careers
- Skills: kinematics, URDF, PLC basics, safety standards, documentation.
- Proof: a two-link arm model, a documented project report and a clean profile of your work.
- Use: the robot arm playground, the industry hub and the careers hub.
Habits that help at every stage
- Build one thing at a time and write down what failed.
- Keep a bill of materials with the prices you actually paid.
- Show your work: photos, code and a short write-up.
Get a printable project pack from the free project starter kit, and browse the Free Library for templates and viva questions.
Last reviewed: November 2026. Free to copy and adapt for your own project, with credit. Written, checked and maintained by Jignesh Panchal of Jaadu Digital. See the editorial standard.
How to know you are ready to move on
Do not move by time. Move when you can do the stage’s proof task without copying code line by line.
- Stage 1: you can wire an LED with the right resistor and read a sensor, and explain the numbers.
- Stage 2: you can make a motor go forward, back and at set speeds, and explain why a motor driver is needed.
- Stage 3: you can tune a controller on a robot and show your notes of what each setting changed.
- Stage 4: you can reconnect a networked robot after a drop in the connection, and keep code under version control.
- Stage 5: you can set up a model of an arm, run the maths for its joints and write up a complete report.
How to practise each stage
- Build the proof project twice. The second time, change one thing, such as the sensor or the controller, and note the difference.
- Write a one-page note after each project: what worked, what failed and the fix. This builds your portfolio.
- Read datasheets for every part you use, even if you only check the voltage, current and pinout.
Common mistakes
- Jumping to ROS 2 or vision before you are comfortable with motors and power.
- Buying a big kit before you have completed a small project.
- Not recording failures. The failure notes are what interviewers and examiners ask about.
Choosing what to skip
You do not need every topic. Choose the stages your goal needs. A student preparing a college project may spend most of the time on stages 1 to 3, while someone interested in industrial robots will want stage 5 earlier.