Best for
University instructors, bootcamps, robotics clubs, and lab managers planning repeatable hands-on learning with real hardware.
Plan robotics teaching around repeatable hardware and clear learning paths
Use this page when you are designing a course, lab, workshop, or school robotics program and want a practical path instead of scattered product research.
What this page is: a starting point for educators who need teaching-friendly robotics paths, classroom-ready hardware, lab safety guidance, and a cleaner curriculum sequence.
What matters most
Hardware students can actually bring up safely, documentation easy enough to follow independently, and public troubleshooting when something breaks mid-lab.
How to use it
Start with Robotics Academy, decide which platform fits your class, then contact SVRC for hardware, loaner units, and teaching support.
Recommended next links: Robotics Academy, SO-101 Tutorials, OpenArm resources, Forum, and Contact.
Academy vs Developer Wiki — which resource does your classroom need?
The Robotics Academy (learn/robotics-library/) is built for structured teaching: ordered modules, role-based pacing, and guided exercises from hardware bringup through deployment concepts — ideal for course design and student progression. The Developer Wiki (wiki/) is a technical reference for practitioners using SVRC SDKs and hardware APIs directly — SDK quickstart, API reference, VLAI L1 and LinkerBot O6 integration guides. Assign Academy for foundational understanding; point advanced students to Wiki when they need exact parameter tables or SDK integration code.
Classroom Setup
SO-101 in the classroom
The SO-101 tabletop arm is the recommended starting platform for classroom robotics. It is small enough to run on a standard lab bench, has no pneumatics or high-voltage requirements, and ships with documented ROS 2 bringup scripts. A typical 90-minute lab session can cover powered-on calibration, joint teleoperation, and a first imitation-learning data collection pass.
SO-101 tutorials
Step-by-step bringup, calibration, and teleoperation guides. Each tutorial is designed to be reproducible in a single lab session without hardware expertise.
Open SO-101 tutorials →Academy curriculum sequence
Hardware (A) → Software (B) → Design (C) → Industry (D) → Operations (E). Map each Academy layer to a weekly module or lab unit for multi-week courses.
Open Academy →OpenArm for advanced labs
When students outgrow SO-101, OpenArm adds payload, workspace, and higher-DOF complexity — suitable for capstone and graduate-level projects.
OpenArm tutorials →
Lab Safety
Safety principles for robotics labs
Tabletop manipulators like SO-101 and OpenArm are lower-risk than full-size industrial arms, but they still require a clear safety protocol. Establish these rules before the first powered session:
1. E-stop always accessible
Keep a software or hardware emergency stop within arm's reach of every operator. For ROS 2 setups, the Ctrl-C kill sequence should be practiced before the arm moves.
2. Workspace clearance
Mark a 60 cm exclusion zone around the arm base when powered. Students should enter this zone only when the arm is unpowered or in a known safe joint state.
3. Joint limit awareness
Teach students to read joint angle feedback before commanding motion. SO-101 and OpenArm both expose live joint state topics in ROS 2 — verify limits before each session.
4. Data collection safety
During teleoperation data collection, the operator should keep the other hand on the kill switch. Unexpected policy rollouts during replay can exceed human reaction time.
Club Pacing
Suggested pacing for robotics clubs and courses
A typical semester-length robotics club or elective can follow this 12-week spine, mapped to Academy layers. Adjust the cadence for bootcamp (compress to 4–6 weeks) or a year-long program (expand each unit with additional design challenges).
Weeks 1–3: Hardware foundations
SO-101 bringup, joint calibration, and first teleoperation. Goals: every student can power on, home, and safely stop the arm. Use SO-101 tutorials and Academy layer A.
Weeks 4–6: Software and data
ROS 2 topics, data recording with rosbag, and first imitation-learning data collection pass. Students collect 20–50 demonstrations of a simple task (pick and place).
Weeks 7–9: Design and integration
Workspace analysis, end-effector selection, and system constraints. Students design a simple gripper modification or workspace jig and evaluate it quantitatively.
Weeks 10–12: Capstone and showcase
Teams present a working robot task, document their data collection protocol, and post a build log to the SVRC Forum for community feedback and discussion.
Suggested Path
A simple educator sequence
1. Start with Academy paths
Use the structured learning flow to build course modules around tutorials, software, and troubleshooting. The five-layer stack (A–E) maps directly to weekly lab units.
Open Academy →2. Choose classroom-fit hardware
SO-101 for introductory labs, OpenArm for advanced work. Compare systems based on ease of setup, safety, repeatability, and lab budget constraints.
Compare hardware →3. Reuse public documentation
Lean on tutorials and docs that students can access directly instead of rebuilding all learning material from scratch. SVRC resources are publicly accessible.
Browse resources →4. Scope workshops or support
Contact SVRC if you want help with lab planning, demos, loaner hardware, teaching support, or student onboarding at the Palo Alto facility.
Talk to SVRC →
Community
Where educators usually go next
Build a teaching sequence
Use guided articles and tutorials to turn a hardware purchase into a multi-week learning path. Guides cover data collection, model selection, and system debugging.
Browse guides →Keep troubleshooting public
Let students and teaching assistants search and reuse solutions from existing community threads. Post lab questions so answers benefit future cohorts.
Open Forum →Forum Q&A for labs
Direct students to open questions on the Forum so debugging sessions become searchable community knowledge, not private Slack threads that disappear.
Forum questions →Use leasing if needed
Reduce upfront commitment when you are testing a course, lab format, or workshop series first. Leasing lets you validate the curriculum before a capital purchase.
Explore leasing →