I’m a senior in high school. I want to be a robotics engineer but I’m not sure which major would be best for that career. Every source I go to says with mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, or computer science will work. Which of these would be best to become a robotics engineer?
I am wondering if, by the time you graduate in four years, robots will already be designing all of the new robots.
What part of robotics interests you. the mechanics, the electronics, or the software?
Does your school have a FIRST team? Late to join (build season has started), but it is s great way to learn more about what area you might like.
If you’re interested in the physical design of robots, go with electrical or mechanical.
However, physical design of robotic systems is largely a solved problem and jobs related to mechanical or electrical design are relatively few, far between, and more likely to go to engineers with significant amounts of experience. The vast, vast, vast, vast, vast majority of jobs in robotics these days have to do with perception, control, and AI/machine learning/computer vision. While individuals from many backgrounds can make their way into this side of the robotics industry, the best route to this is a graduate degree (MS or PhD) in CS, or possibly EE.
I have an MS in mechanical engineering, and my research and thesis focused on robotic control and dynamics. If I could go back in time, I would study CS.
Only individuals with an ME or EE degree will be able to work on or design the physical aspects of robotic systems. Individuals with an ME, EE, or CS degree will be able to work on developing algorithms and software for control, perception, and intelligence, but it will be much easier to get into this with a CS degree. This is less of an issue at the PhD level, where your research focus and experience will influence what type of work is available to you, regardless of what discipline the PhD is in.