Library
83 verified resources
Every link was checked against the vendor or the official docs in September 2026. Filter by month, or search by name.
83 shown
- Open
Month 1
Falstad Circuit Simulator (free, in-browser)
Animated electron flow and live voltage colouring, so you actually watch current move instead of imagining it, which is the fastest way to build intuition
falstad.com
- Open
Month 1
Tinkercad Circuits (Autodesk, free with account)
The only simulator that gives you a virtual breadboard, a virtual Arduino and a virtual multimeter together, so it catches your wiring mistakes before you own any parts
tinkercad.com
- Open
Month 1
All About Circuits, "Lessons in Electric Circuits" (free)
A complete open-licensed EE textbook in six volumes, and this is your reference when a video hand-waves something you need to actually understand
allaboutcircuits.com
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Month 1
Afrotechmods Tutorials (free)
Short, fast, funny videos sorted into beginner, intermediate and advanced, and the right choice if you bounce off lecture-format teaching
afrotechmods.com
- Open
Month 1
Make: Electronics, 3rd edition, Charles Platt ($29.99)
The best single paper book for someone who has never held a multimeter, built around deliberately destroying components to learn their limits
makershed.com
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Month 1
Elegoo UNO R3 Super Starter Kit ($42.99)
The best value pick and the kit most beginner courses target, with a pre-soldered LCD, power module and a 22-lesson PDF
elegoo.com
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Month 1
Elegoo UNO Basic Starter Kit ($19.99)
The cheapest real entry point if money is genuinely tight, with an Uno clone and basic passives
elegoo.com
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Month 1
SparkFun Inventor's Kit v4.1.2 ($99.95)
The best curriculum of any kit, 16 circuits across 5 projects ending in a working robot, and the free guide is readable even if you buy a cheaper kit
sparkfun.com
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Month 1
Adafruit digital multimeter 9205B+ ($17.50)
Volts, current to 20A, continuity, resistance and capacitance, which is everything you need for years
adafruit.com
- Open
Month 1
Pinecil V2 soldering iron ($25.99 community, $35.99 retail)
A real temperature-controlled iron for the price of a toy one, USB-C powered, takes standard TS100 and Hakko T12 tips
pine64.com
- Open
Month 1
Adafruit Guide to Excellent Soldering (free)
Iron selection, joint technique, photographs of every common failure, and safety, and it is the reference everyone in the industry points to
learn.adafruit.com
- Open
Month 1
SparkFun: How to Use a Multimeter (free)
Voltage, resistance, current and continuity explained properly, including what to do when you blow the fuse, which you will
learn.sparkfun.com
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Month 1
CS50P: Introduction to Programming with Python (Harvard, free)
More rigorous than most beginner courses, with problem sets and a final project, and the structure is what makes people finish it
cs50.harvard.edu
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Month 1
Python for Everybody (Coursera, free to audit)
The gentlest starting point if CS50P feels too steep, taught by one of the most beginner-friendly instructors online
coursera.org
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Month 1
The Missing Semester of Your CS Education (MIT, free)
Shell, scripting, and the command-line fluency that university courses skip, and robotics runs on the command line
missing.csail.mit.edu
- Open
Month 1
Learn Git Branching (free, interactive)
The best visual tool for understanding branches and merges, which is the part of Git that confuses everyone
learngitbranching.js.org
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Month 2
Paul McWhorter, Arduino Lessons (free)
Over 100 lessons taught slowly with homework at the end of each one, and the single best fit for a true beginner who has failed at Arduino before
toptechboy.com
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Month 2
Arduino Built-in Examples (official, free)
Runnable sketches already inside your IDE, which is the fastest route from "installed" to "something moved"
docs.arduino.cc
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Month 2
Arduino Official Docs, Learn section (official, free)
The authoritative reference for digital and analog IO, PWM, I2C, SPI and UART, best used as lookup rather than as a course
docs.arduino.cc
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Month 2
Arduino Project Hub (free)
Over 6,000 projects with wiring and code, and this is where you go when tutorials end and you need something to build
projecthub.arduino.cc
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Month 2
Random Nerd Tutorials, Getting Started with ESP32 (free)
The highest-signal free tutorial library anywhere for this chip, with a specific fix for nearly every beginner failure mode, and a 250+ project index alongside it
randomnerdtutorials.com
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Month 2
ESP-IDF Programming Guide (Espressif official, free)
The only source of truth once you outgrow the Arduino layer, covering the real toolchain, menuconfig and the build system
docs.espressif.com
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Month 2
Arduino ESP32 Core documentation (Espressif official, free)
Espressif's own docs for the Arduino layer, and the bridge that makes "Arduino versus ESP-IDF" a spectrum rather than a fork in the road
docs.espressif.com
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Month 2
DroneBot Workshop ESP32 hub (free)
Long-form, wiring-diagram-heavy tutorials with written articles mirroring every video, covering ESP-NOW, OTA updates and low-power modes
dronebotworkshop.com
- Open
Month 2
DroneBot Workshop, Controlling DC Motors with the L298N (free)
DC motor theory, PWM, H-bridge internals and three complete sketches, ending in a joystick-driven robot car
dronebotworkshop.com
- Open
Month 2
SparkFun TB6612FNG Hookup Guide (free)
Pinout, wiring and library for the driver you should actually use, with the reasoning for why
learn.sparkfun.com
- Open
Month 2
DroneBot Workshop, Stepper Motors with Arduino (free)
Unipolar versus bipolar, microstepping, NEMA sizing, and four demos across three different drivers
dronebotworkshop.com
- Open
Month 2
SimpleFOC documentation (open source, free)
The clearest free explanation of field-oriented control anywhere, and the affordable on-ramp to brushless motors when you get there
docs.simplefoc.com
- Open
Month 2
Adafruit BNO085 9-DoF IMU guide (free)
Covers an IMU that does sensor fusion on-chip and hands you a quaternion, which is the "buy your way out of the maths" option
learn.adafruit.com
- Open
Month 2
Kalman and Bayesian Filters in Python, Roger Labbe (free, CC-BY)
Jupyter notebooks with runnable code and solved exercises covering g-h, discrete Bayes, KF, EKF, UKF and particle filters, and it is the best free filtering education that exists
rlabbe.github.io
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Month 2
MathWorks, Understanding Sensor Fusion and Tracking (free)
Six short parts from "what is sensor fusion" to fusing IMU and GPS for pose, and the right conceptual overview before you touch code
mathworks.com
- Open
Month 3
Onshape Learning Center, Fundamentals: CAD (free with account)
The only free structured CAD curriculum that ends in a credential you can put on a CV, and it ships a dedicated robotics-competition track
learn.onshape.com
- Open
Month 3
Product Design Online, Learn Autodesk Fusion in 30 Days (free)
Thirty modelled objects in thirty days, which is the fastest route from never having opened CAD to confident parametric sketching
productdesignonline.com
- Open
Month 3
MangoJelly Solutions FreeCAD tutorials (free)
The best FreeCAD teacher for makers, organised as short targeted lessons rather than one monolithic course
youtube.com
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Month 3
Protolabs Network, Design for 3D printing (free)
The design-for-manufacture half of CAD: wall thickness, orientation, tolerances, supports, snap-fits, and when to use STL versus 3MF versus STEP
hubs.com
- Open
Month 3
OrcaSlicer Calibration wiki (free)
Temperature, flow, pressure advance, retraction and tolerance calibration in a recommended running order, and it is the most useful slicing document for anyone who wants parts that fit
github.com
- Open
Month 3
Teaching Tech 3D Printer Calibration (free, interactive)
A printer-agnostic interactive walkthrough that takes you through every calibration in sequence
teachingtechyt.github.io
- Open
Month 3
CNC Kitchen (free)
Instrumented, repeatable strength tests on infill, walls, threaded inserts and orientation, which is where print orientation stops being folklore and starts being data
youtube.com
- Open
Month 3
Clearance and Tolerance 3D Printer Gauge (free STL)
Print this once and you know your machine's real clearance for press fits and sliding fits, which every bracket and bearing seat you design afterwards depends on
printables.com
- Open
Month 4
Official ROS 2 Tutorials (free)
The canonical reference, structured exactly around nodes, topics, services, actions, parameters, launch files, tf2 and URDF. It is reference-grade rather than pedagogy, so pair it with video
docs.ros.org
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Month 4
The Construct (free tier, paid from €39.97/month)
Everything runs in a browser-based ROS environment with simulated robots, which removes the single biggest friction point for beginners: no Ubuntu dual-boot, no install weekend, no GPU. The free tier includes three complete courses
theconstruct.ai
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Month 4
Edouard Renard, ROS 2 for Beginners, Level 1 (Udemy, roughly $10 to $20 on sale)
Thirteen hours in both Python and C++ covering nodes, packages, topics, services, custom interfaces, parameters and launch files. Never pay list price, Udemy discounts almost permanently
udemy.com
- Open
Month 4
Articulated Robotics, Josh Newans (free)
The best free end-to-end narrative anywhere: design a robot, write the URDF, simulate it, add ros2_control, put it on a Raspberry Pi with a lidar, then SLAM and navigate. Uniquely good on ros2_control, which almost every other resource fumbles
articulatedrobotics.xyz
- Open
Month 4
MOGI-ROS, a full university course (free, Apache 2.0)
A real semester-length syllabus on ROS 2 Jazzy with Gazebo Harmonic, running from pub/sub through URDF, sensors, navigation and MoveIt 2 arms, with working code for every week
github.com
- Open
Month 4
Automatic Addison (free)
Recipe-style guides organised by distro, and notable for already carrying Lyrical tracks alongside Jazzy. This is where you go for "how do I write an action in Jazzy" rather than a full course
automaticaddison.com
- Open
Month 4
Articulated Robotics, Coordinate Transforms for Robotics (free)
A dedicated series on frames and transforms, which is the concept that blocks most people's understanding of URDF
articulatedrobotics.xyz
- Open
Month 4
Edouard Renard, Level 2: TF, URDF, RViz, Gazebo (Udemy, roughly $10 to $20 on sale)
The single best URDF resource, covering xacro macros, robot_state_publisher, RViz configuration and Gazebo plugins, ending in a mobile base with an arm on it
udemy.com
- Open
Month 4
Official URDF tutorial with robot_state_publisher (free)
The canonical walkthrough, available in both C++ and Python variants
docs.ros.org
- Open
Month 4
Gazebo documentation and tutorials (free)
Building your own robot, moving it, SDF worlds, sensors, and spawning a URDF
gazebosim.org
- Open
Month 4
MuJoCo (free, open source)
The fastest and most accurate contact dynamics available, CPU-first so it needs no GPU, and it is the research standard for locomotion and manipulation learning
mujoco.readthedocs.io
- Open
Month 4
NVIDIA Isaac Sim (free download)
Photoreal simulation and synthetic data generation, and read that requirements link before getting excited: the minimum is an RTX 4080 with 16GB VRAM, and data-centre cards without RT cores such as the A100 and H100 are not supported at all
docs.isaacsim.omniverse.nvidia.com
- Open
Month 4
ros2_control documentation (free)
Where URDF meets actuation: hardware interfaces, controller manager, and the <ros2_control> tags that go in your xacro
control.ros.org
- Open
Month 4
Articulated Robotics, ros2_control on real hardware (free)
The only resource that walks the simulation-to-real-hardware transition properly
articulatedrobotics.xyz
- Open
Month 4
Nav2 Getting Started (free)
Launches Nav2 in simulation in under five minutes, with a pre-configured VS Code dev container that removes all install pain
docs.nav2.org
- Open
Month 4
Nav2 Tutorials (free)
Covers SLAM, keepout zones, speed limits, collision monitoring, docking, GPS navigation, and writing your own planner, controller or behaviour-tree node
docs.nav2.org
- Open
Month 4
SLAM Toolbox (free, open source)
The currently supported ROS 2 SLAM library, with synchronous, asynchronous, lifelong and localization-only modes, and multi-robot support
github.com
- Open
Month 4
RTAB-Map for ROS 2 (free, open source)
Appearance-based RGB-D and stereo SLAM with loop closure, for when you have a depth camera rather than a lidar, or want a 3D map
github.com
- Open
Month 5
Understanding PID Control, MATLAB Tech Talks with Brian Douglas (free)
Seven parts covering what PID is, integrator windup, derivative filtering, tuning, and manual versus automatic tuning. The fastest route from zero to a controller that works this week
mathworks.com
- Open
Month 5
Brian Douglas, Control System Lectures (free)
Intuition-first explanations across PID, state space, robust control and drone control, and the best fit for someone with no formal controls course behind them
youtube.com
- Open
Month 5
The Fundamentals of Control Theory, Brian Douglas (free, Creative Commons)
The written companion to the videos, and a coherent narrative rather than scattered lessons
engineeringmedia.com
- Open
Month 5
Control Bootcamp, Steve Brunton (free)
Thirty-nine videos and the right entry point to state space, controllability, observability, LQR and the Kalman filter
youtube.com
- Open
Month 5
Feedback Systems, Åström and Murray (free PDF)
The rigorous textbook, released free by Princeton University Press, for when you want the proper version without paying
fbswiki.org
- Open
Month 5
Understanding Model Predictive Control, MATLAB Tech Talks (free)
Seven parts from why to use MPC through adaptive and nonlinear variants, and how to make it run fast enough to be real
mathworks.com
- Open
Month 5
Underactuated Robotics, Russ Tedrake, MIT (free)
This is where control theory becomes robotics: pendulums, cart-poles, walking, running and humanoids, with dynamic programming, LQR, Lyapunov analysis and trajectory optimisation. Free notes, free PDF and lecture videos
underactuated.csail.mit.edu
- Open
Month 5
Modern Robotics, Kevin Lynch, Northwestern (free book, code and videos)
The free preprint of the standard textbook, plus companion libraries in Python, MATLAB and Mathematica and full video lectures. It uses screw theory and product-of-exponentials rather than DH parameters, which is cleaner and now the industry norm
hades.mech.northwestern.edu
- Open
Month 5
Modern Robotics Specialization (Coursera, free audit available)
The same material as a structured six-course sequence with assessment, if you need deadlines to finish things
coursera.org
- Open
Month 5
Robotics Toolbox for Python, Peter Corke (free, MIT)
Forward kinematics, Jacobians, numerical IK, trajectory generation and fifty-plus real robot models including Franka and UR, so you learn by running code against real arms
github.com
- Open
Month 5
QUT Robot Academy, Peter Corke (free)
Over 200 video lessons of under ten minutes each, labelled by prerequisite level, and the best source of short atomic explanations of DH parameters, Jacobians and pose representation
robotacademy.net.au
- Open
Month 5
FREE OpenCV Bootcamp (OpenCV.org official, free)
The official two-to-three hour course from OpenCV themselves, covering image manipulation, filtering, edge detection, tracking and the DNN module. Start here rather than a paid course
courses.opencv.org
- Open
Month 5
OpenCV Camera Calibration tutorial (official docs, free)
The canonical walkthrough with full Python code, from chessboard corners to undistortion to re-projection error. Every robotics engineer must be able to do this from memory
docs.opencv.org
- Open
Month 5
Cyrill Stachniss lectures, University of Bonn (free)
Full university lecture recordings on mobile sensing, photogrammetry and SLAM, and the best free source on the geometric side: projective geometry, bundle adjustment, EKF and graph SLAM
ipb.uni-bonn.de
- Open
Month 5
Open3D point cloud tutorials (free)
Voxel downsampling, normal estimation, ICP registration, plane segmentation and clustering, with far less friction than PCL for anyone already in Python
open3d.org
- Open
Month 5
MoveIt 2 Getting Started (free, open source)
The official entry point, and the docs recommend Jazzy on Ubuntu 24.04 for the smoothest experience
moveit.picknik.ai
- Open
Month 5
Pick and Place with MoveIt Task Constructor (free)
The most useful manipulation tutorial in ROS 2, teaching how to decompose a task into stages and implement grasp generation, IK and collision management
moveit.picknik.ai
- Open
Month 5
Robotic Manipulation, Russ Tedrake, MIT (free)
Twelve chapters connecting hardware, kinematics, perception, grasping, planning and control into one coherent stack, and it now teaches model-based and learned approaches together, which is exactly how the industry now works
manipulation.csail.mit.edu
- Open
Month 5
Contact-GraspNet, NVIDIA (free code)
Six-DOF grasp generation in cluttered scenes from a depth map, and the standard baseline for learned grasping
github.com
- Open
Month 6
LeRobot documentation (free)
The main docs, covering the full pipeline and every supported robot
huggingface.co
- Open
Month 6
LeRobot repository (free, Apache 2.0)
Over 26,000 stars, and the place to read how the policies are actually implemented
github.com
- Open
Month 6
Hugging Face Robotics Course (free, no hardware required)
Runs entirely on simulated environments and public datasets, so you can do the whole thing before buying anything. Roughly 30 to 45 minutes per unit
huggingface.co
- Open
Month 6
SO-101 setup guide (free)
The exact port-finding, motor-setup, calibration and recording commands for the arm you built in month three
huggingface.co
- Open
Month 6
MuJoCo Playground (free, Apache 2.0)
GPU-accelerated environments for locomotion, manipulation and vision tasks with four Colab tutorials, and far easier to get running than the alternatives. Start here
github.com
- Open
Month 6
NVIDIA Isaac Lab (free, BSD-3)
Sixteen robot models and thirty-plus pre-built training environments, integrating RSL RL, skrl, RL Games and Stable Baselines. The industry standard for legged and humanoid sim-to-real, and it needs the RTX hardware from month four
github.com
- Open
Month 6
CS 285, Deep Reinforcement Learning, Sergey Levine, UC Berkeley (free)
The best RL course available, and Levine is a robotics researcher so the framing is robotics-native throughout, covering imitation learning, policy gradients, actor-critic, model-based and offline RL
rail.eecs.berkeley.edu