<p>What part of the job does each discipline specialize in? Off of the top of my head, I would guess that ME's know basic electrical theory to calculate stresses and design the structure, while EE's handle...(Sensor/actuator systems? Electrical calculations? A little programming?)?</p>
<p>Would anyone recommend one discipline over the other for robotics? Why?</p>
<p>EE’s would handle sensors, actuators, embedded stuff, controls, and a lot of programming (although a CS could do a lot of the programming too). Robots can be very complex and thus needs very complex programming.</p>
<p>ME could also do some controls.</p>
<p>I personally would recommend EE. I think it’s more interesting. Tougher problems to solve.</p>
<p>I know very little about robotics, but it sounds way cooler to be the brains (EE) rather than the brawn (ME).</p>
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<p>You are forgetting all the planning and control that goes into a robot system. Sometimes it isn’t straightforward to tell a robot what to do or plan its automation.</p>
<p>Nice replies!</p>
<p>In EE, robotics and control theory are often linked. Relevant topics from control include linear/nonlinear control, feedback, stability, systems, etc. Said topics usually are very mathematical.</p>
<p>My school has a “robotics engineering major” although the major is not really legit (2 people do it). It combinese CS, EE, and ME. I think the EE perspective is the sensors, the computer architecture implementation, vision systems, etc and the ME’s worry about the statics, dynamic control. The CS majors know about machine learning paradigms and AI which can help the robot behave like an “intellegent” agent.</p>
<p>I am majoring in ECE because it seems to have the broadest value in robotics and it is more legit than robotics engineering.</p>
<p>Are you at WPI? I heard they are the only school with a Robotics Engineering major…</p>
<p>Yes I am at WPI, but I am not (and will unlikely ever be) majoring in robotics engineering.</p>