Articles
Tutorials, news, and opinion. Free, no paywall, forever.

Welcome to RobotForge
A community for DIY robotics and physical AI. Here's what we're building and why.

Why open robotics matters more than ever
Figure, Tesla, 1X — the humanoid race is closed-source. Here's why the open movement is still the one that wins.

A preview of the RobotForge simulator
Browser-based robot physics with Rapier 3D, a Monaco editor, and a JavaScript control loop. Here's what's coming.

Your first 20 minutes with ROS 2
No robot required. Install, launch turtlesim, publish a velocity message. The fastest honest intro to ROS 2.

I stopped buying humanoid robots — and started printing them
$20K for a NEO, $30K for a Unitree, $16K for a G1. Or print Poppy for $500. A year of living with both.

The $200 robot arm that actually works
A 6-DOF arm built from MG996R servos, a PCA9685, and an ESP32. Pick up a coin. Sort blocks. Under-promise, over-deliver.

Reinforcement learning on real robots: what actually works in 2026
Sim-to-real is finally good enough for amateurs. Here's the minimal stack: MuJoCo MJX, domain randomization, PPO, and a real quadruped on a soft mat.

5 DIY quadrupeds worth copying in 2026
SpotMicro, Mini Pupper, OpenDogV3, Bittle, and Bolt. A field guide with BOMs, skill ceilings, and which one to start with.