Getting deeper into RoboticsAcademy internals and GSOC-26 interest

[keerthivnair]

Hello,

Thanks for the detailed explanation of the contribution roadmap — that clarified a lot @jmplaza earlier .

Over the past weeks I’ve been working with RoboticsAcademy as a user: I’ve completed the line following, digit recognition, laser mapping, and vacuum cleaner exercises on Unibotics. While doing so, I also submitted a small documentation PR to make parts of the laser mapping backend easier to understand for beginners (especially explaining what some backend functions return and how they are used). I’ve also been following and helping on issues when possible.

At this stage, I’d like to move from user to developer contributions. I’ve started going through the RoboticsAcademy repository and am trying to understand how the backend functions are structured (especially with the ongoing ROS2-related components). Before going too far, I wanted to ask for guidance on where you’d recommend focusing first in the codebase to understand the core backend logic, so that future contributions are meaningful and aligned with the project architecture.

Separately, while exploring RoboticsAcademy, I’ve been thinking about a possible new interactive/game-style exercise for robot learning and GSOC 2026. I’m still in the exploration phase and would first like to understand the internals better before discussing feasibility, but I thought I’d mention it in case it aligns with the project direction.

I’m continuing to work with ROS2 and RoboticsAcademy in parallel and would really appreciate any pointers on the best next technical steps.

Thanks for your time and guidance.
Keerthi

[jmplaza]

Hi @keerthivnair ,

please share here demo videos of all your completed RoboticsAcademy exercises.

Let me remind that we at JdeRobot have not yet been accepted for GSoC-2026, and we even don't have published the projects we propose for it in case of being accepted. In such a case we follow a neutral and independent candidate selection process for GSoC. The mission of GSoC program is to foster the open source orgs, their open source projects and communities, promoting the integration of long term contributors to them.

RoboticsAcademy is maybe our most important project. The best way to start contributing is using our software projects. Share here or in RoboticsAcademy Discussions the demo videos of your working solutions and your questions. If you want to contribute to RoboticsAcademy, currently betatesting of all the exercises is the best way of contributing. Feel free to report at RoboticsAcademy discussions your feedback as betatester of the exercises you have played with.

For becoming a RA developer, just take a look at RA instructions for developers. Again, use RA Discussions for questions.

[keerthivnair]

Sure, will share all the video links in RA discussions sir.

[keerthivnair]

Hi @jmplaza sir,

This is my demo video link of the Follow Line demo. Pls check it out!

follow line pid demo

[jmplaza]

Hi @jmplaza sir,

This is my demo video link of the Follow Line demo. Pls check it out!

follow line pid demo

Nice solution @keerthivnair , very stable :-)

[keerthivnair]

thankyou sir!

[Aaravanand00]

Hi @jmplaza sir,

Regarding the previous issue (#639) that you had assigned to me — I sincerely apologize again for not being able to complete it on time due to my college viva and evaluations. Because of that gap, the PR became outdated and I was unable to properly continue the work. That was completely my responsibility.

I genuinely enjoyed working on the RoboticsAcademy exercises. When I first made the car move correctly in the car junction exercise, and later when I solved the vacuum cleaner exercise, it was a very motivating learning experience for me — understanding the launch structure, Gazebo integration, ROS2 topics, and the overall architecture helped me grow significantly.

Now I am fully available again and ready to contribute consistently. I would be grateful if you could assign me an issue that you think is suitable. I will carefully follow the contribution guidelines and ensure proper local testing before submitting any PR.

Additionally, I have been exploring the tentative GSoC project ideas. I found the Deep Learning based Power Tower Inspection exercise (Project #3) particularly exciting, as well as the C++ extension for exercises (Project #2). I feel these projects align strongly with my interests in robotics and learning-oriented development.

Would it be okay if I try building a small prototype related to one of these ideas (for example, a minimal deep learning based inspection pipeline or a C++ exercise extension) and share it with you for feedback? I believe starting early with a prototype would help me better understand the architecture and contribute more meaningfully.

I also wanted to ask — does the organization hold regular community meetings (e.g., Discord, Slack, or other platforms)? I had tried finding the links earlier but couldn’t locate them. I would really like to join the meetings and stay more actively involved with the community discussions.

Thank you very much for your guidance and patience.

Best regards,
Aarav

[jmplaza]

Hi @Aaravanand00,
just follow the applicant instructions https://jderobot.github.io/activities/gsoc/2026#application-instructions-for-gsoc-2026