Active development2026Author

Botopsy Lab

Failure-first robotics education

Students get a broken robot, diagnose it, repair it, and prove the fix, because that is the loop the job actually consists of.

Problem

Robotics teaching usually hands a student a working system and asks them to extend it. The actual job is the opposite: something is broken, the logs are unhelpful, and the skill is narrowing it down.

Setting up ROS is also the first thing that stops people, and it teaches nothing.

What I built

An environment where the robot is already broken, and grading checks that you proved the fix.

Browser-accessible ROS and ROS 2 environments, no local install
VM checkpoints with save and resume, so a lab can be left and returned to
Six courses, 96 graded labs planned
Diagnose → modify → test → prove loop with automated grading
A separate teacher-led curriculum for grades 3 to 8

Limitations and failure modes

Course and lab counts are the plan, not the shipped total.

Gallery

The premise, stated on the front page, a broken ROS 2 system, the real tools, and a test that checks your fix rather than your answer

Attribution

Built by me: The platform, curriculum design and the grading model.

RosScope
ROS 2 fleet diagnostics, an oscilloscope for the graph