13 Free Online Robotics Course for Beginners

Do you know that an average robotics engineer earns approximately $103,000 annually? A free online robotics course for beginners is a brilliant way to start.

Playing with robot toys was one of the fun things I did growing up, and I believe the same for you. It is so cool to watch them obey you, sometimes I had to pause to imagine what caused these inanimate objects to obey me. 

You kids can even learn to build a robot as little as they are, it will even boost their cognitive reasoning.

Imagine you’re that guru that will build a robot that can cause lots of children or even adults to ponder how this robot was made. Yes, it is absolutely possible, and that’s what you’ll be learning in this free online robotics course for beginners.

Coding is also an important aspect of building a brilliant robot. And you can learn to code as a beginner or allow your kid to participate in one of the coding websites.

The best part of it is that you can grow your passion for robotics and also make money doing so. You can start creating robots on your own or even work for companies that are in demand for your skill. 

Especially knowing the fact that the demand for robotics Engineers is seen to grow by 4% from 2018 to 2028.

Before we dive into these free robotics courses, let’s understand what robotics actually means.

What is robotics

You remember C-3PO (SEE-THREEPIO) and R2-D2 who proved to be of great importance to lots of battles in Star Wars movies (sorry if you’re not a Star Wars fan). This is a typical example of robotics.

Robotics has to do with designing and constructing robots that can be used to execute a task that was normally done by the traditional method. Sometimes these robots even do the work better and faster than humans (sorry humans).

Isaac Asimov, an American writer, and professor of biochemistry at Boston University introduced 3 laws that have to be followed when creating a robot. They are;

  • A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
  • A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
  • A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Benefits of learning robotics

Daniel H. Wilson, a New York Times bestselling author, a television host, and a robotics engineer once said, “There are an endless number of things to discover about robotics. A lot of it is just too fantastic for people to believe.”

And, we will be listing some of the things you’ll gain by studying a free online robotics course for beginners.

Improve your Coding Skill

To successfully build a robot you have to work on some computer programming codes, and the process will help you to improve your programming skill. You’ll be able to write codes, test run them, check for errors, and fix them if any.

With the right codes, you’ll be shocked at what a simply designed robot can do. 

Python is one of the popular programming languages you’ll get familiar with within this free online robotics course for beginners. Because of its importance in machine learning.

Strong Critical Thinking

The process of analyzing the right solution for a robotic problem is promised to improve your reasoning. In fact, students that have participated in robotics classes have shown rapid growth in critical thinking, including kids.

You can also improve your critical thinking by writing essays.

Encourage STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics)

Most children want to run away from science and math, and some students have concluded that they won’t ever understand math. But with the help of learning robotics, you can start developing an interest in STEM one step at a time.

Also read: Degrees for High School Students Who Hate Math and Science

11 Free Online Math Courses for Middle School

Studying robotics will help you to see the application of STEM in real life, which means you don’t need to memorize lots of mathematical and scientific terms in the process. Studying free online robotics courses for beginners makes STEM easy and fun to learn.

Self-paced

Studying robotics is solely at your own pace. You don’t need to be in a hurry to create that first running toy.

You can follow the steps provided by one of these classes and not be worried about deadlines and you’ll still produce a pleasant robot.

Learn Valuable Skill

Learning robotics can be helpful to grab a reputable skill that can be helpful to you and your career. As I mentioned in the introductory part of this article, how much an average Robotics Engineer earns, will prove to you how valuable this skill can be if you intend to focus on it as a career.

Free online robotics course for beginners

1. Robotics Specialization | Coursera

This is a free online robotics specialization for beginners that has 6 courses. They include;

Robotics: Aerial Robotics

IN this course you’ll learn the basics of the mechanics of flight, how a quadcopter is designed, and you’ll see how the drone industry is growing and shaping our world and the challenges they face. For you to effectively participate in this course you need a little understanding on;

  • Linear Algebra
  • Single Variable Calculus
  • Differential Equations
  • Some experience programming with MATLAB or Octave, because MATLAB would be used in this course.

Robotics: Computational Motion Planning

A robot is designed to be able to decide on the best behavior to achieve the desired result of the owner. That is what this course will teach you, how a robot decides what to do to achieve the desired result.

Robotics: Mobility

You’ll learn from this free online robotics course for beginners how to design robots to be able to use their motors and sensors to efficiently move around an environment that has many obstacles.

Robotics: Perception

In this free online robotics course for beginners, you learn how to create a robot that can use the images and videos they have gathered to understand their own movements which will help them to easily navigate while moving.

Robotics: Estimation and Learning

A robot needs to learn from the surrounding environment, and that’s what this course will help you to understand.

Robotics: Capstone

This is a 6-week class that will allow you to practice all you’ve learned in this specialization by creating a robot that can help solve a real-life problem. You’ll practically see how to apply mathematics and programming to create robotics.

Key Ingredients

  • 100% Online
  • Self-paced
  • Approximately 7 months to complete
  • 6 instructors
  • By University of Pennsylvania
  • Shareable Certificate
  • Over 150k students 

Apply Now!

2. AI for Everyone | Coursera

This free online robotics course for beginners will teach you the basics of AI regardless of your knowledge of it. It is designed in a way that non-technical students can participate in it and fully understand everything from the course.

The course will teach you common AI terminologies, what an AI can and cannot do in the real world, and how to apply AI to your industry. How to work with the AI team and build a strong strategy that will be effective for a company.

This cost is mostly non-technical, but an engineer can still learn some things from it, especially the business aspect of AI. 

Key Ingredients

  • 100% Online
  • Over 771,000 students
  • 16% of students got worthy career benefits from this course.
  • Self-paced
  • Shareable Certificate
  • Approximately 12 hours to complete.
  • 35 videos

Enroll Now!

3. Fun With Beginner LEGO MindStorms EV3 Robotics | Udemy

This free online robotics course for beginners will show you a practical way to build small robots and program them with the help of the EV3-G programming language. Moreover, you will be having fun building this mini robot, and seeing how this mini robot obeys your instructions, including smiling and speaking.

Key Ingredients

  • 100% online
  • For middle school
  • Fun to study and practicalize.

Learn Now!

4. Mechanisms And Motion – Robotics Focus | Udemy

This free online robotics course for beginners will help you to gain a better mechanical understanding of how mechanisms work and relate to machine and robot design. Some of the topics you would be learning in this course include; 

Key Ingredients

  • %100 Online
  • 84 lectures
  • 8 modules
  • Instructional videos
  • More than 5 hours of on-demand videos

Enroll Now!

5. Introduction to Robotics & Autonomous Car Design

In this introductory class, you don’t need previous knowledge of robotics. In fact, the course will give you the basic knowledge you need to move to the next level of robotics, computer programming, and Electronics.

You’ll learn to use sensors and motors, and will be able to build a two-wheeled robot through your knowledge of Arduino robotics.

Key Ingredients

  • 100% Online
  • Good for newbies, Middle School Students, and high school students
  • 10 Lectures

Enroll Now!

6. The Mechatronics Revolution: Fundamentals and Core Concepts | edx

This course will teach you how to easily build robotic devices. After the free online robotics course for beginners, you’ll be able to recognize and describe the elements of a microcontroller.

You’ll also be able to create programs for microcontrollers with the help of interrupt-driven programming, and you’ll understand the fundamentals of microcontrollers. 

Your instructor, Dr. Jonathan Rogers, Associate Professor of Avionics Integration in the Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, will practically teach you major mechatronics concepts. You’ll also be able to build your own mechatronics systems.

The course is free, but for you to complete the lab assignments in the course, you’ll need to purchase the mechatronics lab kit for $119. The lab kit is beneficial for the class and is highly recommended for your future journey in robotics.

Key Ingredients

  • Published by Georgia Tech
  • Approximately 16 weeks
  • Self-paced learning
  • Video class

Enroll Now!

7. Autonomous Robots

Autonomous robots are robots that can perform tasks without the help of any human. And in this free online robotics course for beginners, you’ll be learning the algorithms and ideas that help to build these robots.

This course will focus on the software and algorithmic part of the subject, where you’ll be able to use a flying simulator framework, where you can test your algorithms in real environments.

Key Ingredients

  • Provided by IsraelX
  • Approximately 13 weeks
  • Self-paced learning
  • Robotic Softwares for Beginners
  • edX support

Enroll Now!

8. Future Robots | edX

The world has changed from the way it used to be centuries ago, things have changed, new machines have made things easier to do and robots have even made them easier and faster. That is why lots of people consider robotics to be the fourth industrial revolution.

This free online robotics course for beginners focuses on helping you to explore robotics as a new scientific discipline that will lead you to understand human behavior. This course will show you some possible opportunities and problems that robotics can bring to our world and how robotics can transform our economic growth.

Key Ingredients

  • Produced by Federica Web Learning (FedericaX)
  • Approximately 7 hours
  • Self-paced
  • English Video Transcript
  • World-Class Institution
  • edX Support

Enroll Now!

9. Robotics Foundations 1 – Robot Modeling | Edx

In this free online robotics course for beginners, you will learn the foundations of robotic systems. Which includes modeling, planning, and control.

In the modeling section, you will be learning the kinematic models, the differential kinematic in the static, and the dynamics. It is advisable to get the textbook (Robotics model and planning control) while taking this course.

Key Ingredients

  • Self-paced learning
  • Taught by 25 Years Experienced Robotics Professor
  • Approximately 8 weeks

Enroll Now!

10. Evolution of Robotics | Alison

To know the future of robotics, you also need to understand the past and that’s what this free online robotics course for beginners will help you to learn. You’ll learn some histories and laws of robotics.

You’ll also learn how a robot can see an object and move towards it which is known as manipulator kinematics. Further, you’ll learn the fundamentals of the complex engineering field and the industrial technology of robotics. 

When you’re done, you’ll take a single assessment to test what you learned.

Key Ingredients

  • Published by NPTEL
  • Approximately 4 hours
  • Accredited Course
  • 100% Online
  • Self-paced learning
  • Paid Certificate

Enroll Now!

11. Cognitive Robotics: Intelligence Theories and Cognitive Networks

This free online robotics course for beginners will teach you to develop an artificial cognitive network for robots. You’ll be able to see how to build a robot that can think on its own.

Key Ingredients

  • Published by NPTEL
  • 100% Online
  • Approximately 6 hours to complete
  • Accredited Course
  • Self-paced learning
  • Paid Certificate

Enroll Now!

12. Artificial Intelligence for Robotics | Udacity

This free online robotics course for beginners will teach you how to program the major system of a robotic car. It will start by teaching you the introductory part of AI. There are 6 lessons in this course, they include; 

  • Localization
  • Kalman Filters
  • Particle Filters
  • Search
  • PID Control
  • SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping)

To successfully go through this course, you need some programming experience and mathematics (the mathematics used here is focused on probability and linear algebra, and you don’t need to be an expert in any of them).

Key Ingredient

  • Instructor videos
  • Practical examples
  • Taught by industrial professionals
  • Interactive Quizzes
  • Self-paced learning
  • Approximately 2 Months

Enroll Now!

13. IBM Applied  AI Professional Certificate | Coursera

In this free online robotics course for beginners, you’ll learn about AI all from scratch. This specialization will teach you python, and chatbot, and help you to leverage IBM Watson.

This specialization will show you how to use IBM Watson to create elegant applications that require little coding. Moreover, it has 6 courses, which include;

Introduction To Artificial Intelligence (AI)

This course will introduce all you need to learn about AI basics, including understanding the application of AI, and terms associated with AI and you’ll be able to take a mini project to demonstrate your knowledge in action. Most importantly, this course doesn’t require any prior programming understanding or technical background.

Getting Started With AI Using IBM Watson

With the help of IBM Watson, you don’t need prior programming knowledge to apply AI or build a smart app. This course will teach exactly how to do that.

Building AI-Powered Chatbots Without Programming

Chatbots are a very important tool to website owners, and you can learn to create one without writing any code. This free online robotics course for beginners will teach you to create, plan, test, and publish chatbots that can make users easily engage with websites.

Python For Data Science, AI & Development

This course will teach you Python for data science from scratch including programming in general, which is greatly useful to robotics. Python, which is one of the most popular programming languages, is more than needed in this century.

Python Project for AI & Application Development

You’ll be using your knowledge of Python skills to develop applications and AI-powered solutions in this course. Make sure you’ve completed the previous course (Python For Data Science, AI & Development) before taking this course.

Building AI Application With Watson APIs

Even at this point, you don’t need a piece of knowledge in programming to build an AI application. One of the things you’ll create in this course is a student advisor chatbot, which uses both textual and audio interaction, unlike most chatbots.

Key Ingredients

  • 100% Online
  • Shareable Certificate
  • Digital Badge from IBM to recognize your proficiency in applied AI
  • Over 550,000 students
  • Self-paced
  • Approximately 7 months to complete

Apply Now!

Free Online Robotics Course for Beginners – FAQs

How can I teach myself robotics?

By participating in any of the courses we have provided in this guide. All of them are self-paced and have instructional step-by-step videos that can help you to learn beginner robotics courses.

What should a beginner learn first in Robotics?

The first thing you should learn in robotics is coding. But if you’re finding it difficult, try LEGO Mindstorms, our 3rd pick in this article can help you.

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