What should wannabe roboticians study at high school?

Hello...as the title says i was wandering what should I study at high school?I have to choose between these profiles : Mechanics, Electronics and Mathematics - Information Technology.

Alexander wrote:Hello...as the title says i was wandering what should I study at high school?I have to choose between these profiles : Mechanics, Electronics and Mathematics - Information Technology.

Welcome Alexander, so you want to know what to take up in school.
I would say all 3 classes,
· you need mechanics to under stand how parts work in relation to each other like gears, pumps, power windows, power antennas, and more.
· you need electronics so that you can build servo controller boards, power regulators, make your own circuit boards, I/O boards, and under stand the difference between ac, dc, volts, amps, and current.
· you need mathematics like algebra, geometries, calculus, and so on. This is will help you under stand how much voltage or amps or current can go through a circuit on a board it also helps with x/y coordinates work in programming, how far a servo should turn and lots more.
· you also need to learn programming like C, C++, visual basic, so you can build programs for servo’s, video camera’s, motion sensors, touch sensors, and so on.

All these classes are for robotics plus get your self a copy of Visual Studio 2005 you can purchase it through Ebay for around $100 so you can start learning programming. You can download Windows Visual Studio Express 2008 for free but you will not be able to compile the program into an executable program to run on its own it will only work within the Visual Studio environment. Also start collecting parts I get mine for free on trash night, just go around and collect all the throughen out radio’s, computers, printers, and scanners you can find and strip the parts out of them.
You also might want to check online all the colleges and their courses on robotics to see what their pre-requisites for classes that you might need for the future.

Thanks for the answer, I know they're all important but in my country I got to pick one.Later in university I will study robotics and mecatronics.
So in your opinion what should I pick?

Wow really missed that about you being in another country (my bad). Sorry I’ve been up really late trying to build a magnetic generator.

Ok I would say get the math it would be the most logical way to go. You can learn about electronics and mechanics by reading tutorials online and by taking things apart. With the mathematics you can build a program to work servos and stepper motors or build a better power supply or cooling system. If you want to build your own parts in auto-cad or other programs you need math. To calculate the torque of a motor needed to lift a robotic arm you need math.

The other thing you should consider down the road is some chemistry to know what materials to make the robot out of and how these materials will handle stress or vibration.

Hope this helps you.

Ok, thanks

Hi

I would suggest buying a small robot kits to program it.
If you like it then continue in the field of robotic if not then studying something different, otherwise you will be wasting your time in university.

Small kit robotic is very easy to program, you can do it in Basic language or C.
Robotic are mostly done in Basic and C.

Alexander wrote:Hello...as the title says i was wandering what should I study at high school?I have to choose between these profiles : Mechanics, Electronics and Mathematics - Information Technology.

depends on what robotics field you want to do.
there is mechanical robotics, often given very weird names, and mainly deals with the mechanics of the robot. would need math, science (like physics), and a shop class that deals with metal working.
then of course, there is electronic/software design, mainly working with the electronics (which are sometimes combined with the mechanics course instead of software) and the software to control the mechanics. would require math, science, and computer programming classes, mainly very advanced programming classes.

I know you probably don't want to hear this but mathematics is the most important thing to master in high school. And I mean math up to Multivariable Calculus and Differential Equations.

Later in college, almost every engineering/applied science class, whether it be statics/dynamics or circuit analysis and signals & systems will be heavily math oriented & if you can formulate your schematics, then the math will get you your answer and good grades on your exams. Otherwise, you might have a great conceptual handle on the material, however, like a lot of biologists and political science students have discovered, can barely pass genetics or econometrics because their high school math wasn't up to snuff.