u/Least-Accountant-136

Hi everyone, I'm Hatim Ahmed Hassan, a mechanical engineering graduate, self-taught in robotics mostly through ROS2, computer vision, and embedded work.

I built an autonomous agricultural robot (ROS2, Nav2, MoveIt2, RGB-D crop detection, full navigate→detect→water pipeline) and I'm at a fork in the road with it. The next version (V3) would add things like fleet coordination for multiple robots, upgrading to a 6-DOF arm, and 3D perception/SLAM fusion — all things I haven't touched yet, so a lot of new ground to cover at once.

The alternative is starting a smaller, self-contained project first (something simpler in manipulation or perception) to build up specific skills before tackling V3's harder pieces together.

I'm not sure which path actually builds a stronger skillset faster. Part of me thinks jumping into V3 forces me to learn several hard things under real integration pressure, which is how I've learned best so far. But part of me wonders if I'm setting myself up to struggle with too many unknowns at once instead of mastering them individually first.

For people who've worked on multi-robot systems, 6-DOF manipulation, or SLAM — how did you approach picking up new subsystems like these? Did tackling them inside a bigger integrated project work better for you, or did isolating them first make more sense? Genuinely trying to figure out the smarter way to spend the next few months.

GitHub with more detail on the current project, if useful context: https://github.com/xaatim

Hi everyone,

I'm Hatim Ahmed Hassan, a Mechanical Engineering graduate with a strong interest in robotics and autonomous systems.

Over the past several months, I've been developing an autonomous agricultural robot as a personal learning project. The goal has been to design and integrate the complete system myself—from the mechanical design and ROS 2 software to navigation, computer vision, and simulation-based testing.

Repository:
https://github.com/xaatim/beam_agrobot_v2

I'm posting here because I'd really appreciate honest technical feedback.

Some questions I'd love your thoughts on:

• Does the overall system architecture make sense?
• Are there any design decisions you would change?
• What would you improve if this were your project?
• Are there any obvious weaknesses or bad practices that I've overlooked?
• If you were reviewing this as part of a robotics portfolio, what would stand out?

One thing I'd like to mention: I'm not looking for collaborators on this project. My goal is to learn every part of the system by building it myself, even if that means taking longer. I'm mainly looking for constructive criticism and ideas that can help me become a better robotics engineer.

Thanks in advance! I genuinely appreciate any feedback, whether it's positive or critical.

Edit: Thanks for the feedback so far — tank treads over the castor setup got confirmed by a few people here, so that's locked in as a priority for V3. For anyone curious, here's where V3 is headed:

• Drivetrain (Tank Treads): Zero-radius spin turns for tight crop rows — bumped up after this thread's feedback.
• Arm (6-DOF): Complex nozzle orientations, e.g. spraying upward under leaves.
• Vision + 3D Perception: Mast-mounted global camera + 3D LiDAR fusion for full environmental point clouds.
• Terrain Safety: IR-based cliff/drop detection feeding the costmap.
• GPS/GNSS: Precise localization across large outdoor fields.
• Battery SOC: Auto return-to-base charging.
• Mobile Manipulation: Base repositions automatically if a crop is outside arm reach.
• Task Planning: Nav2 Behavior Trees for autonomous row-by-row watering logic.
• Fleet Coordination: Multi-robot namespace + task allocation for simulating several AgroBots in the same field.