Engineering Labs
Free interactive engineering labs for robotics: motion graphs, projectile motion, motion profiles and motor sizing. Change a parameter, watch the robot react, learn the equation, then find out what motor and gearbox it needs. No sign-up.
Where do I start?
Say what you are building or trying to understand.Reference robots
Engineer a real robotEach journey runs the labs on that robot’s own numbers, from its parts and its design.Find out why a servo that holds the arm folded strains when it reaches, and how much it can really carry.
3 steps: Reaching out · Where should it rest? · How much can it carry?
See how a small servo arm on a 5 V supply is limited by its reach and its wiring, not only its servos.
2 steps: Reaching out · What can it lift?
Meet the limit LeKiwi ships with: three wheel servos can ask for more current than its battery board will give.
3 steps: Driving into a wall · The arm on the base · Reaching without tipping
Compare the shove a standing biped can take with the one it was measured to catch, and find the limit the supply sets.
2 steps: How hard a shove? · One hip at peak
Find how hard a shove four feet can take from the side and from behind, and how steep a floor it can stand on, from its own geometry.
3 steps: A shove from the side · A shove from behind · How steep a floor?
Size the drive a 58 kg omni base needs to reach its datasheet speed, then find how hard a shove it takes with a rated payload held out at full reach.
3 steps: Up to speed · The wrist holds the load · Reaching without tipping
Explore
School and beginnersChange a number, watch the robot react, read the graph, learn the equation.01FundamentalsMotion, vectors, forces and levers — the language of every robot.
Motion Graphs
How do position, velocity and acceleration relate?
For a robot: Turns "reach 2 m in 3 s" into the acceleration your robot has to produce.
Graph Builder
What motion does this velocity graph describe?
For a robot: The jerks and spikes you draw are what a motor has to deliver.
Vector Lab
How do vectors add, subtract and split into components?
For a robot: The three wheel forces of an omni-wheel base add up to one body force — the same maths.
Lever & Arm Torque
Why does a robot arm strain when it reaches out?
For a robot: Shows why straight out saturates a shoulder servo and a folded pose does not.
02Robot PhysicsProjectiles, relative motion, rotation and balance, applied to machines.
Projectile Motion
Where does a launched object land, and what does air drag change?
For a robot: For a ball-launcher robot: the launch speed you need becomes a flywheel speed.
Aim at the Falling Target
Where should you aim at something that drops the moment you fire?
For a robot: Intercepting a moving object: aim where it is, not where gravity will take it.
River Crossing
How does a current change where you land?
For a robot: A robot crossing a moving conveyor, or a drone in crosswind, must aim upstream by the same rule.
Two Robots Meet
When, and where, do two moving robots meet?
For a robot: The intercept time for a chase or hand-off between two robots.
Rotation & Inertia
What does it take to spin a wheel up, or turn a corner without sliding?
For a robot: Wheel spin-up time and the fastest corner your robot can take before it slides or tips.
Balance & Centre of Mass
How hard can you push a robot before it falls?
For a robot: The push a humanoid or a tall mobile base can take, and how a wider stance buys margin.
Engineer
Makers and collegeSize the motor, the gearbox and the controller for a robot you are building.03MechatronicsFrom a motion request to a motor, its current and its supply.
- 04Mechanisms— coming: Gear trains · Four-bar linkage · Lead screw
- 05Control— coming: Control Lab: tune a PID and run the robot · Anti-windup and saturation · Sensor noise and sample rate
- 06Mobility— coming: Differential-drive odometry drift · Omni and mecanum kinematics · Terrain and slip
- 07Manipulation— coming: Forward and inverse kinematics · Jacobian and singularities · Workspace and joint limits
Advanced
Robotics engineersSense the world, estimate where you are, and plan a path through it.- 08Perception & Estimation— coming: Complementary filter · Kalman filter · Wheel + IMU fusion
- 09Navigation & Planning— coming: Occupancy grids and A* · RRT · Local obstacle avoidance
Research
ResearchersAutonomy that works inside engineering limits, not around them.- 10Autonomy & AI— coming: Behaviour trees · Task and motion planning · Learned policies under constraints
Mission
Systems engineersFail safely, prove it works, and finish the mission.- 11Reliability & Safety— coming: Fault injection: can your robot detect and recover?
- 12Systems Engineering— coming: Requirements to V&V trace · Interfaces and integration
- 13Mission Robotics— coming: Mars rover · Lunar construction · Space manipulator