How Robots Work
Discover how machines sense the physical world, make real-time decisions, and move with precision. Learn the core principles behind autonomous navigation, mechanical manipulation, and feedback control.
Like Duolingo, but for How Robots Work. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
21 levels across 3 sections, about 42 minutes end to end, roughly 8 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Making Machines Move; Perceiving and Navigating Space; and Control, Balance, and Autonomy. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in How Robots Work
- A robot must gather information about the physical world before it can make a decision
- The robot's software evaluates sensor input to choose an action
- Physical movement is the final stage that alters the robot's state in the world
- Open-loop machines run on fixed timers or predetermined routines regardless of external conditions
- Closed-loop robots use sensor data to continuously alter their behavior when obstacles appear
- Adapting to changes in the physical environment defines closed-loop control
- Connecting sensors directly to wheel motors can create lifelike attraction or avoidance behavior
- Complex-looking behaviors can emerge from very simple, reactive physical rules without an internal map
- Reactive robots skip heavy deliberation to respond instantly to physical stimuli
- Small physical variations like wheel slip and uneven floor friction accumulate drift over time
- External environments shift unpredictably, such as doors opening or people walking into the path
- The real world continues moving while a robot's computer is processing
- A robot's compute budget forces a trade-off between plan quality and immediate survival
- Fast-moving robots must favor quick, approximate reactions over slow, optimal calculations to avoid physical collisions
- Wheels require motors that spin freely and endlessly in full rotation
- Joints like elbows or fingers need motors that can hold specific designated angles
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives How Robots Work the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
What part of a robot processes the sensor readings to pick the next move?
Get it right to open this lesson and 20 more in the app.
Where How Robots Work takes you
- 1
Making Machines Move
- The Sense-Think-Act Loop
- Motors, Joints, and Kinematics
- 2
Perceiving and Navigating Space
- Sensing the Physical World
- Mapping and Path Planning
- Gripping and Manipulating Objects
- 3
Control, Balance, and Autonomy
- Feedback Control and Dynamic Balance
- Autonomous Decision-Making and Safety
3 sections · 7 units · 21 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
Tomo is in ChatGPT
Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
How Robots Work is taught in the Bestie style: your friend who just gets it. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start How Robots Work today.
Download Tomo, search How Robots Work, and play your first lesson in under a minute.