In fifth grade, I joined a FIRST Lego League robotics team, and although my team of all first-years placed dead-last at our first ever competition, I was completely hooked. This was the beginning of my obsession with robotics. I would go on to do 8 years of FIRST robotics, through 12th grade … Having seen my programmer-teammates code elaborate autonomous routines and automations for the robots I designed, I naturally became curious about the software that controlled the robots as well. As the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown began, with some more time on my hands, I set a goal to explore this new realm … At the same time, I heard about new trends in robotics–autonomous machines that could disinfect facilities with little to no human involvement, robotic nurses to deliver supplies and materials to the sick, robotic emergency responders, and more. I learned about the tremendous potential of autonomous mobile robots in service applications … This was plenty enough motivation for me to get started. I borrowed one of my robotics team’s old robots and got to work in my garage, starting with YouTube tutorials and learning the basics of motion control. I didn’t quite know what I was researching yet or what my end goal was, just that I wanted to become an expert in this field and build something useful and novel; the rest I would figure out later …

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