131. The Truth About ROS Jobs

131. The Truth About ROS Jobs

 

How important is ROS (Robot Operating System) for a career in robotics software development? Is it worth investing time and effort into learning ROS as a roboticist? These are common questions for anyone entering the field of robotics. In this blog, we’ll explore job market trends and data to show how ROS skills can shape your career. To gain insights, we analyzed job listings on LinkedIn, focusing on the U.S. market in November 2024, and found approximately 2,000 openings for robotics software engineers. Now, let’s dive into the key findings

  1. Education Requirements in Robotics

 

Our analysis of job postings revealed a wide range of educational expectations for robotics software engineers. Here’s a closer look:


  • 27% of jobs didn’t require a degree at all
  • 50% preferred or required a master’s degree
  • The remaining positions either emphasized a bachelor’s degree or, in fewer cases, a PhD, depending on the job’s complexity and specialization.

2. Specialty Requirements in Robotics

96% of employers preferred candidates with computer science expertise, emphasizing the industry’s focus on programming. However, degrees in mechanical, electrical, or mechatronics engineering are also valued if paired with strong programming skills.

3. Work Environments in Robotics

Most robotics jobs are on-site, reflecting the need for physical interaction with robots. Working with physical systems is often most effective when done directly with the robots.

4. Previous Experience in Robotics

Around 50% of robotics job offers target senior professionals with 5+ years of experience, while the rest are for mid-level and entry-level roles. Experienced candidates are in high demand and may earn higher salaries due to the limited talent pool.

 

5. Key Skills for Robotics Careers

Based on the analysis, I’ve summarized the key skills employers seek into 4 main segments.

  1. Software Development Skills
    • Proficiency in C++ and Python (the dominant programming languages).
    • Familiarity with tools like Linux, Git, Docker, and CI/CD processes.
    • Knowledge of design patterns, data structures, and parallel programming.

  2. Robotics and AI Skills
    • Expertise in areas like control theory, embedded systems, kinematics, and real-time systems.
    • AI capabilities such as computer vision, machine learning, and SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping).
  3. ROS and Related Tools
    • Skills in ROS (Robot Operating System), MoveIt, and Gazebo were frequently cited.
    • However, frameworks other than ROS are gaining traction, signaling a shift toward proprietary or alternative solutions.
  4. Soft Skills
    • Leadership, communication, and documentation skills are crucial for teamwork and project management.

               

According to the analysis, only 37% of all these positions explicitly required ROS skills. For many employers, ROS was listed as a “nice-to-have” rather than a mandatory qualification.



If you want to acquire all the in-demand skills for a robotics job, check out this 6-month program: The Robotics Developer Masterclass. Combining theory with practical, hands-on learning, provides a complete path to becoming a 100% job-ready robotics engineer in 2025.




Everyone says the robotics industry has high demand and high salaries, but what does the actual salary situation look like? 


6.  Salaries in Robotics

In the U.S., robotics software engineers enjoy competitive salaries. The average ranges between $190,000 and $200,000 annually, reflecting the high demand for skilled professionals!

Conclusion: Should You Learn ROS?

While ROS may not be a universal requirement, learning it offers several advantages:

  1. It provides a robust foundation for understanding robotics frameworks.
  2. It enhances hands-on experience in critical robotics tasks like navigation and path planning.
  3. It builds the expertise needed to transition into other frameworks as needed.

The rise of proprietary frameworks, such as those from tech giants like Tesla and Unitree, may challenge ROS’s dominance. However, ROS remains a powerful tool for learning and experimentation, making it a worthwhile investment for those entering the field.

What’s your take on the future of ROS in the robotics job market?

Share your thoughts in the comments below!

 

Or watch the video

2018 Worldwide Robot Operating System (ROS) Courses Schedule

2018 Worldwide Robot Operating System (ROS) Courses Schedule

 

ROS is becoming the standard of Robotics Programming and learning about ROS has also become more and more important. There are more and more courses taught using ROS. In this post you will find all upcoming ROS courses in 2018. 

If you are teaching a course (at any level) using ROS  please comment below and we’ll share it to this list.

Short Courses (Intensive Training):

  1. Robot Operating System Summer School ROS 2018

    FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences • Aachen

    • Dates: 

    August 20 – August 31, 2018 (Registration Deadline May 31, 2018)

    • Course Content: 

    The ROS Summer School provides the right starter kit in the form of our robotic hardware and – of course – ROS software. We start with several days of introductory courses before tackling the main task of mobile robotics, i.e., perception, localisation, and navigation.

    A highlight of the programme is a competition at the end of the second week: summer school participants form several teams that are then given the task of designing a typical mobile robotic application such as indoor/outdoor exploration. They all use the same hardware, which is powered by the ROS skills that they have acquired.

    Course website >>

  2. ROS Workshop Basic Course (offered in Japanese)

    Tokyo Opensource Robotics Kyokai • Tokyo and Aichi

    • Date:

    May 17, 2018 (Venue : Yurakucho, Tokyo)

    May 22, 2018 (Venue :Venue: Nagoya, Aichi)

    • About the course: Introductory course for ROS, a defacto standard robotics framework software. Suitable for professionals who heard “ROS” but never experienced yet.

    Course website >>

  3. RobotCraft 2018: Internship and Summer Course on Robotics

    3rd Robotics Craftsmanship International Academy • Portugal

    • Date: Jul 2 – Sep 2, 2018
    • About the course:

    Ingeniarius, University of Coimbra and Robotic Clube of UC provide internship mobility and a unique summer course in robotics to students, with or without Erasmus+ Internship mobility. The students attending this 2-months program will have the opportunity to work on robotics, focusing on several state-of-the-art approaches and technologies. The summer course, entitled as the 3rd Robotics Craftsmanship International Academy (RobotCraft 2018 – 2nd July 2018 to 2nd September 2018), will provide a general overview of the science and art behind robotics, teaching the basis around the Arduino programming and the ROS framework. Students will learn how to design, build and program their robots throughout multiple crafts, carefully prepared to provide a wide range of skills and knowledge on the topic.

    Course website >>

  4. ROS Online Courses: 23 online courses available

    Robot Ignite Academy • Online

    • Date: Learn on your schedule
    • About the course: It’s an online Academy contains a series of online ROS courses tied to online simulations, giving you the tools and knowledge to understand and create any ROS based robotics development.  The topics include: ROS basics, navigation, manipulation,, perception, self-driving cars using ROS, ROS-Industrial, OpenAI Gym for robotics, Robot Creation with URDF ROS, RGB-Navigation, ROS control, TF, ROS deep learning with TensorFlow and programming drones with ROS.

    Course website >>

University Courses (Undergraduate & Graduate):

 

  1. ROS for Industrial Robots

    International ACADEMY | RWTH-AACHEN University • Aachen

    * Date:

    17/09 – 21/09/2018

    • About the course:

    ROS FOR INDUSTRIAL ROBOTS

    This course introduces the ROS middleware and its tools for developing modern robot systems. It covers the general structure of ROS and the usage of its publish-subscribe, service and action-server concepts. Furthermore, a short introduction of the robot simulation GAZEBO is given. Within hands-on-sessions, the participants will integrate the key components of a mobile robot (Hardware, Sensory as well as Localization, Mapping and Motion Planning Algorithms) in ROS.

    The course will be completed with an examination.

    Affiliated to this, successful participants will receive the official RWTH Executive Certificate.

    Course website >>

  2. MECH_ENG 495: SELECTED TOPICS: EMBEDDED SYSTEMS IN ROBOTICS

    Department of Mechanical Engineering – Northwestern University • USA

    • Date: Offered every fall quarter
    • About the course:

    This is a project-based course aimed at providing experience with a variety of software tools that may be valuable to a robotics engineer working with practical embedded systems. The course will use the Robot Operating System (ROS) as an example framework for software architecture, and learning ROS will be a primary goal of this course. After introductory material, students will work in groups to complete software-intensive robotics projects that operate with real hardware.

    Course website >>

  3. Programming for the Robot Operating System

    University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing • Croatia

    • Date: Winter semester
    • About the course: High complexity of tasks that the modern mobile robots are facing calls for using a programming infrastructure which enables efficient integration of independently developed subsystems into a single system enabling autonomous robot operation. The Robot Operating System (ROS) offers an environment for developing modular control software, a communication infrastructure to connect the software components and an open source library of implemented algorithms. In the last five years ROS has become the standard for robot control in the academic community and its influence is spreading also in the industry. In the scope of this course we shall cover the practical development of software modules in the ROS environment and their integration into a completely functional system for autonomous robot control.

    Course website >>

  4. CSCE 790 Machine Learning

    Computer Science & Engineering Department – University of South Carolina • Columbia

    • Date: Spring 2018
    • About the course: In this course we will study the latest methods in Machine Learning as they apply to the field of robotics. In particular we will study: Reinforcement learning, Gaussian Processes, Deep Learning, and Deep Reinforcement Learning.

    Course website >>

  5. CS 545 Introduction to Robotics

    The Computational Learning and Motor Control Lab • USA

    • Date: Fall 2018
    • About the course: This course introduces fundamental concepts in Robotics. In the first half of the course, basic concepts will be discussed, including coordinate transformation, kinematics, dynamics, Laplace transforms, equations of motion, feedback and feedforward control, and trajectory planning. These topics will be exemplified with simulation studies using our own simulator. The second half of the course will focus on applying the knowledge from the initial lectures to various motor systems, including manipulators, artificial eye systems, locomotory systems, and mobile robotics. Some lectures will be replaced/supplemented with labs in which the course participant will learn to program a small humanoid robot.

    Course website >>

  6. CSE 481C: ROBOTICS CAPSTONE

    Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering – University of Washington • USA

    • Date: Winter 2018
    • About the course:  The main goal of this course is to open up new career options in robotics for computer science and engineering students. To that end, the course will teach you the basics of robotics and give you implementation experience. You will learn to use libraries and tools within the most popular robot programming framework ROS (Robot Operating System). We will touch on robot motion, navigation, perception, planning, and interaction through mini-lectures, labs and assignments, eventually integrating these components to create autonomous or semi-autonomous robotic functionalities. The project will give you team-work experience with large scale software integration and it will get you thinking about opportunities for using robots to make people’s lives easier.

    Course website >>

 


 

2018 Robotics Events&Conferences Guide

2018 Robotics Events&Conferences Guide

 

infographics-robotics-conferences-guide-2018

To learn more and register for the above robotics events, please visit the following link:

  • RobotSoft 2018: The first IEEE-RAS International Conference on Soft Robotics (April 24 – 28, 2018)
  • SIMPAR 2018IEEE International Conference on Simulation, Modelling, and Programming for Autonomous Robots (May 16 – 19, 2018)
  • ICRA 2018 : IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (May 21 – 25, 2018)
  • UR 2018 : Ubiquitous Robots 2018 (June 26 – 30, 2018)
  • RDC 2018 : The first Online ROS Developers Conference (July 7 – 8, 2018)
  • AIM 2018 : IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (July 9 – 12, 2018)
  • CASE 2018 : 14th 1EEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (August 20 -24, 2018)
  • ISR 2018 : IEEE International Conference on Intelligence and Safety for Robotics (August 24 – 27, 2018)
  • BioRob 2018 : The 7th IEEE RAS/EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (August 26 – 29, 2018)
  • RO-MAN 2018 : The 27th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (August 27 – 31, 2018) 
  • ICDL-EPIROB 2018 :  The 8th  Joint IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning and on Epigenetic Robotics 2018 (September 17 – 20, 2018)
  • ARSO 2018 : IEEE Workshop on Advanced Robotics and its Social Impacts AI EMPOWERED ROBOTICS AND ITS IMPACT ON SOCIETY (September 27 – 29, 2018)
  • Humanoids 2018: The 2018 IEEE-RAS 18th International Conference on Humanoid Robots (November 6 – 9, 2018)
  • ROSCon 2018: ROS Conference (Sep 29 – 30, 2018 in Madrid, Spain)
  • IROS 2018 : IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (October 1 – 5, 2018)
The Construct at CAF – 3rd Summer School “Connectivity and Digital Innovation in Latin America”

The Construct at CAF – 3rd Summer School “Connectivity and Digital Innovation in Latin America”

The Construct researcher- Miguel Ángel Rodríguez delivered a speech in the 3rd Summer School “Connectivity and Digital Innovation in Latin America”. This activity is organized by the CAF, ECLAC, and the Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals (IBEI) and hold at University Pompeu Fabra (UPF).

This activity is aimed at leading professionals in the field of development and experts in ICT policies in the public administration, multilateral organizations, research centers, non-governmental organizations, foundations, enterprises, and universities interested in the role of creative innovation in development.6屏幕快照 2016-06-14 上午10.43.44escuela-de-verano

The Construct will participate in the 3rd Annual STEMtech Conference June 2016

The Construct will participate in the 3rd Annual STEMtech Conference June 2016

The Construct The 3rd Annual STEMtech Conference and Showcase – Skilled for Success is supporting the development and advancement of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths education and careers in the UK and overseas. This annual event showcases, celebrates, recognises and helps drive innovative and integrated approaches to STEM teaching and learning and works with major industry partners to ensure our young people are developing the skills, experience and motivation needed for the future.
屏幕快照 2016-06-06 下午5.25.11
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The Construct will participate in the IROS 2016:Teaching Robotics With Cloud Simulations

The Construct will participate in the IROS 2016:Teaching Robotics With Cloud Simulations

 

The Construct will present a live tutorial at IROS 2016:
Teaching Robotics With Cloud Simulations

This tutorial is about showing how to develop a teaching class of robotics that allows the students practice each one with a robot, and allow the teacher to concentrate on teaching and the student on learning robotics, instead of solving configuration/installation errors.

The 2016 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2016) will be held in Daejeon, Korea, October 9-14, 2016. The venue for IROS 2016 is the Daejeon Convention Center (DCC), close by “Daedeok Innopolis”. The program will integrate workshops and tutorials, plenaries, mini-plenaries, special sessions, exhibitions, robot demonstrations, an industrial forum and social activities for attendees and guests.

More about our tutorial
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