I'm very new to robotics. I'd made a simple wired car a couple of years ago, but that's pretty much about it.
I see different people ask different questions on the forum about how they can do a specific thing they're thinking about doing and I just keep wondering how the people who answer those questions know it.
I can of course google the solution or look for similar posts, but apart from that, I wondering, doing what would basically help someone to reach to that level where they're familiar with the different components available, their functions, feasibility etc?
Would I actually have to sit and build a lot of bots to get that kind of experience or would reading eveything on the site and reading from other countless resources help?
I guess it’s mostly experience. You can get experience by doing or reading or both. I personally think that you absolutely need to do both, otherwise you will either make many costly mistakes or you will not know which solutions are actually effective
The people who respond to all those questions tend to have this mindset of problem solving which comes naturally to them. For example, I tend to do my best work solving problems for other people. When someone tells me they have been strugling with an issue I take it as a challenge. This is probably not a good thing...
I learnt what I know by building the Start Here Robot then just slowly expanding. I totally agree with the other guys in previous posts. You need to do your research as well as the hands on work. I found that I got heaps of ideas from watching videos or seeing other robots on this site then wrote them down on a to do list. I then broke down what kind of knowledge/ parts I need in order to complete the project. From there you can decide what projects you are ready to take on. I aslo like to push myself on each robot to learn about something new. The thought of the complete project is inspiration to keep me going and not give up!