[alsodumb]

I recommend the Roomba like Create 3 robot. It's made by iRobot, the company that makes Roombas but for education.

It supports ROS2, is relatively cheap and easy to her started with. You can layer build your own systems.

PS: If you can afford to spend like $5000 and want a quadraped like Spot, you can get one from Unitree. If you are looking for manipulators, you can get one from Elephant robotics for less than $1000. If you are looking for a more useful manipulator, I love Franka panda but it's like 20,000 USD.

[jamestimmins]

Thanks, this is helpful. I was looking at the Create 3, and I like the price point, but the website doesn't include much in the way of accessories or addons. Do you know what people use it for w/out those?

[alsodumb]

I need to find the link but there is a way to attach camera to it.

Tbh most people use it only for learning ROS. I know you can learn ROS using Gazebo similations but real robot feels better and many universities use such hardware for reaching ROS and robotics basics in intro to robotics classes.

A more useful, affordable "robot" I can think of is Crazyflie nano drone. It has an amazing ecosystem of extensions around it and you can do as high level or low level as you want to. You can develop and tune your own sensor fusion and state estimation algorithms, control algorithms, etc.