Vince Quarles

Goal: Create 6 AI robots (at least 1 custom) by 12/31/26 🤖
Started: 9/25/25

Made AI tools, VR apps, indie games, and now focused on helpful beep-boops.

[Vince Quarles @quarleswithtech]

Day 8 of Building AI Robots 🤖

Worked on the blog site I've been chipping away on in the background. Planning to keep the design super simple so I can focus in on logging my progression.

Been great for reviewing progress and figuring out next steps.

#LearnRobotics #vinceqbuilds #buildinpublic

[Vince Quarles @quarleswithtech]

Backlogged Day 7 of Building AI Robots 🤖

Took a look at the roadmap for my progress and aligned the budget (gonna have to get a raspberry pi and deciding between either a PiDog or PiCrawler)

ChatGPT was saying for aligning to the industry the PiCrawler would be better (more modding potential out of the box and more mechanical design considerations)

[Vince Quarles @quarleswithtech]

Backlogged: Day 6 of building AI robots 🤖

Connected the Robot Car to my phone via the mobile app and used to control the car via FPV (first person view) though LAN (local area network).

With this I'm through Level 3 and on Level 4. This is where progress begins to slow because I need to get pricier components (raspberry pi, AI robot kits, etc).

But honestly Level 4 has me hype because this where I'll start putting together pre-determined robots (Level 7 is where I start making custom - already started designing and listing the components).

#LearnRobotics #vinceqbuilds #buildinpublic

[Vince Quarles @quarleswithtech]

Backlogged: Day 5 of building AI robots 🤖

Focused in on understanding the upcoming levels better and the costs associated with them

Getting perspective on budget since I'm almost done with the key elements for the robot car kit (just need to connect to my phone via app)

#LearnRobotics #vinceqbuilds #buildinpublic

[Vince Quarles @quarleswithtech]

Pictures of the building process

[Vince Quarles @quarleswithtech]

Day 4 of building AI robots 🤖

Completed Level 2 of my 11 level progression roadmap. Now officially at Level 3!

Built the robotic car and tested it with:
- Remote control - using IR to control remote
- Obstacle Avoidance - using ultrasonic sensor to detect distance then turn to avoid objects
- Follow - uses the camera to follow an object

To complete Level 3 going to be using the phone app to control the car and also see about modding the code to get more unique functionality going.

I'm also going to see about modding the car with additional components to get more interactivity and see what logic is possible.

#LearnRobotics #vinceqbuilds #buildinpublic

[Vince Quarles @quarleswithtech]

Went ahead and ordered the Elegoo Smart Car kit + painters tape so I can start on Level 2 topics tomorrow.

Hyped to see what the topics are. Level 1 was about learning to tinker with components. Level 2 is more about learning to combine components as a hobby.

[Vince Quarles @quarleswithtech]

Day 3 of building AI robots 🤖

Completed Level 1 of my 11 level progression roadmap.
Now officially at Level 2!

(I know that was quick but double checked my knowledge and practical building skills with ChatGPT)

Learned more about sensors and inputs (like using an IR remote with an IR receiver)

Created a physically simplified version of my Level 0 project that focused more on input by having an IR setup take buttons 0-9 on an IR remote as input for which song to play.

Loaded 10 songs on the R3 that users can cycle between by hitting a numbered button on the remote.

#LearnRobotics #vinceqbuilds #buildinpublic

[Vince Quarles @quarleswithtech]

@calchiwo Thanks def 🔥

[Vince Quarles @quarleswithtech]

Day 2 of building AI robots 🤖

Completed Level 0 of my 11 level progression roadmap. Now officially at Level 1!

Starting to learn about components and sensors. Wired/coded a passive buzzer to play jingle bells.

#LearnRobotics #vinceqbuilds #buildinpublic

[Vince Quarles @quarleswithtech]

@JovayaSocial Right! Lol’d hard when it worked 🤣

[Vince Quarles @quarleswithtech]

@Waivly Thanks!

[Vince Quarles @quarleswithtech]

Cool part is I'm still only in the starting guide for the kit that I got on Amazon but I'm at a point where I can start understanding how interactive toys are made.

Hoping to clear Level 1 over the weekend so I can get the kit for Level 2 during next week.

[Vince Quarles @quarleswithtech]

Day 1.1 of building AI robots 🤖

Got the LED on the Uno R3 blinking using code

Modified the blink example in the Arduino IDE for a shorter delay

Moving on to external LEDs and the breadboard next

#LearnRobotics #vinceqbuilds

[Vince Quarles @quarleswithtech]

Day 1 of building AI robots 🤖

Grabbed an Elegoo UNO R3 kit (and somehow 2 dragon fruit 🐉🍓) from Amazon

Downloaded the Arduino IDE

Starting off with Claude + the starter guide

Let’s see where this goes 🚀

#robots #AI #hardware #LearnRobotics #vinceqbuilds

[Vince Quarles @quarleswithtech]

Used ChatGPT + Amazon + Google AI mode to create a robotics learning path. About to dive into this, considering turning it into an app quickly:

Level 0 Newcomer
Avg Pay: $0 | Avg Age: 12–18
Project: Blink LED
Kit: https://t.co/z7UIhPzvX7

Level 1 Tinkerer
Avg Pay: $100/year | Avg Age: 13–19
Project: Traffic Lights, Temp Sensor, Buzzing Alarm
Kit: Same as Level 0

Level 2 Hobbyist
Avg Pay: $1,000/year | Avg Age: 15–20
Project: Build a robot car that avoids obstacles & follows a line
Kit: https://t.co/y8ICdeD0nb

Level 3 Maker
Avg Pay: $5,000/year | Avg Age: 16–21
Project: Remote-controlled robot car via phone
Kit: Same as Level 2

Level 4 Experimenter
Avg Pay: $10,000/year | Avg Age: 18–23
Project: Pi camera streams + Arduino controls motors (simple vision-guided robot)
Kit: https://t.co/YcrPgCqfVy

Level 5 Builder
Avg Pay: $50,000/year | Avg Age: 20–24
Project: Build/program robot arm to stack objects
Kit: https://t.co/CuMJ03xpWR

Level 6 Engineer-in-Training
Avg Pay: $100,000/year | Avg Age: 22–26
Project: Self-balancing robot & path-planning car (advanced sensors like lidar)
Kit: Try to build using previous + new parts

Level 7 Prototyper
Avg Pay: $120,000/year | Avg Age: 24–30 (graduate students or early career engineers)
Project: Autonomous mapping robot that creates a 2D/3D map of your apartment (full robotic platform like Jetson Nano)
Kit: https://t.co/5MFrKXgMzL

Level 8 Specialist
Avg Pay: $175,000/year | Avg Age: 27–35 (senior engineers and PhD researchers)
Project: Design and build a unique robotic manipulator or drone (Fusion 360/Blender + 3D printer + robotics hardware)

Level 9 Professional
Avg Pay: $250,000/year | Avg Age: 30–40 (staff engineers and team leads)
Project: Autonomous robot that can navigate complex spaces with AI vision (NVIDIA Jetson, ROS2, reinforcement learning libraries)

Level 10 Tesla/Boston Dynamics Ready
Avg Pay: $500,000/year | Avg Age: 32–45 (principal engineer/director)
Project: Build/lead a team that prototypes robotic systems for factories, cars, humanoid robots

#buildinpublic #AI #futureofwork

[Vince Quarles @quarleswithtech]

Learned jewelry design could be a good path to learning robotics especially with my AI + programming experience (3D printing then going into circuits/sensors)

Gonna be looking into this more 🤔

[Vince Quarles @quarleswithtech]

Starting a challenge to learn to make jewelry with AI + 3D printing

Out of everything I've been doing can't get this idea (now obsession) out of my head